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Book ... 

























































\ 
































in 1744 . 


JOURNAL 

OF THE 

TREATY AT LANCASTER 


In 1744, 


WITH THE SIX NATIONS. 


By WITHAM MARSHB, 

•< 

Secretary of the Maryland Commissioners. 


ANNOTATED BY WILLIAM H. EGLE. M. D. 

i 

j * 

| A' / 


- 

/ 17 


LANCASTER, PA. 

THE NEW ERA STEAM BOOK AND JOB PRINT. 




























Lancaster in 1744 . 


The valuable document which follows is 
unknown to Pennsylvania historians gen¬ 
erally, and as it contains so much of local 
interest we shall give it in full. It is the 
journal of Witham Makshe, who was 
the Secretary to the Commissioners of 
Maryland, representing that Province at 
the Treaty with the Six Nations held at 
Lancaster, commencing the 25th of June, 
1744—a treaty without exception the most 
interesting, if not the most important, 
which ever took place within the confines 
of Pennsylvania, for a fuller account of 
which, giving the speeches of the repre¬ 
sentatives of the Provinces of Maryland 
and Pennsylvania, the colony of Virginia, 
and the leading Chiefs of the Six Nations, 
we refer our readers to the 4th volume of 
“ Colonial Records of Pennsylvania” (pp. 
698-737). With the exception of the re¬ 
marks referred to the details are dry 
enough, but Mr. Marshe’s journal, although 
supplementing it, has a freshness which 
enhances its value. Of course, it is not 
very flattering to our staid German ances¬ 
tors, yet there is a candidness in all his 
statements which show their undoubted 
truth. 

Of Mr. Marshe we have learned but little. 
He was a gentleman of culture, well-con¬ 
nected and of prominence in the early his¬ 
tory of the Province of Maryland. He re- 
■ sided at or near Annapolis, and passed off 
the stage of action prior to the Revolution. 
He was of English birth and came to Mary¬ 
land in 1737, as he states in his journal. 
We hear nothing further of him, and all 
our inquiries have been fruitless. However, 
“ the good that men do live after them,” 
and so it is with this precious journal from 
his facile pen—it has been preserved to us, 
even though but little is known of the au¬ 
thor. 

Some facts coming to our knowledge 
concerning the occasion of the Lancaster 
treaty of 1744, and for which we are in¬ 
debted to Prof. A. L. Guss, of Washington 
city, who has devoted much time and labor 
to ethnological research, are of special 
interest and value in this connection. 


The Occasion of the Great Treaty. 

When the white man came to the Dela¬ 
ware river, it was inhabited by bands of 
Indians, which are known as Lenni Lena- 
pes or Delawares. When the English first 
explored the lower Susquehanna, they 
found it inhabited by a race which they 
called the Susquehannocks. The Dutch as 
early as 1615 and the Swedes when they 
settled in 1638 came in contact with 
these Susquehannocks and called them 
llliuquas. The line between the Delawares 
,/and Minquas seems to have been along the 
dividing waters between the two rivers, 
though in wars the Minquas drove the 
Delawares entirely over into New Jersey. 
The Minquas were a ruling tribe on the 
Delaware as the Mohawks were on the 
Hudson. From 1640 the Five Nations ofV 
New York began to be liberally supplied 
with tire arms, and they soon devastated 
the tribes similar to the Minquas on the 
upper branches of the Susquehanna. Hav- J 
ing disposed of these aud opened the way, 
in 1662 they commenced upon the lower 
Minquas or Susquehannocks. Before this, 
in 1652, the Susquehannocks had sold to 
Maryland their possession and conquest 
rights on both sides of the Chesapeake 
Bay, from the Choptank and Pautuxant 
rivers up to the head of the bay. In 1663 
the Marylanders assisted the Minquas with 
cannon and men in their fort, and defeated 
au army of 800 Senecas and Cayugas/The 
war was, however, kept up, and finally, after 
various reverses and successes, in 1675. 
forsaken by the English who had super¬ 
ceded the Dutch on the Delaware, and by 
the Marylanders, and reduced by disease, 
the Minquas were conquered, many of 
them carried /'off to New York, and 
the balance^fled to the Potomac at 
Piscataway.^ From this place they weie 
afterwards allowed to return to their old 
country and establish themselves as a trib¬ 
utary outpost of the Five Nations, on the 
*• Ouestego ” creek, and there subse/fuently 
they were known as Conestogas/ It was 
in this way that the New York tribes ob¬ 
tained their conquest rights to the lands on 





4 


Marsht j’s Journal. 


the Susquehanna and southward to the 
Potomac, which were recognized by the 
several purchase treaties made with them 
by William Penn and his heirs. Governor 
Dongan, of New York, first purchased 
these Pennsylvania-Susquehanna conquest 
rights from the Five Nations, with a view 
of holding those parts, at least above tbe 
Conawago falls, as part of New York and 
preventing Penn from obtaining the full 
limits of his charter. When this failed, 
he sold and transferred these deeded rights 
to Penn in 1696. In 1699 Penn again pur¬ 
chased from the remaining Conestogas all 
their rights and the rights of their ances¬ 
tors, and, as he aptly expresses it, the rights 
that their “ancestors have, could, might 
or ought to have had, held or enjoyed ” in 
these lands (see Pa. Col. Rec. of August 2, 
1735). In 1701 this purchase was again 
confirmed in the presence of an Onondago 
Deputy, and a promise made them that 
they should have a reservation, which was 
in fact afterwards surveyed to them in 1718. 
Here the dwindling remnant remained until 
the massacre in 1763. 

“The Conestoga Manor.” 

Prior to this their young men gravitated 
to the New York cantons, mostly among 
the Oneidas, as this course afforded the 
only opening for martial renown—for an 
Indian is nothing if not a warrior. Among 
these descendants of the ancient Susque- 
hannocks who attended the Lancaster 
treaty to sell the former heritage of his an¬ 
cestors was Shikellemy—more properly 
Shickenany—who hesitated about sign¬ 
ing the deed to Maryland, which 
_ Marshe blamed on the Pennsylvanians. 
He was the father of the famous “ Logan, 
the Mingo Chief,” and was stationed at 
Shamokin to watch over the Shawnese 
and others. The history of the old Dutch 
Minquas of 1615, as it Anally was applied 
to some of the last vestiges of that tribe on 
the Ohio, would in itself make an exceed¬ 
ingly interesting article. When the Con¬ 
estoga Manor was surveyed in 1718, they 
“run a line round them that none might 
come near them,” and though at that time 
the Indians “had expressed a willingness 
to retire from Conestoga, yet the Govern¬ 
ment here persuaded them to continue 
near us,” and “they appeared very well 
pleased” with “the inclosing by surveys 
the lands where they are seated.” See Pa. 
Col. Rec. of June 16, 1718. 

A Most Transparent Falsehood. 

The Dutch, Swedes and English made 
purchases from the Delawares on the west 


bank of their river. The western limits 
were not given, or were vaguely deAned. 
j There are some representations of such 
purchases extending to the Susquehanna ; 
but the Delawares had no rights to lands 
on that river, and probably never made 
such sales. Penn thought he had extin¬ 
guished the Indian title to the Susquehanna 
lands through his purchase from Dougan, 
and in satisfying the resident Conestogas ; 
and there can be no doubt that the New 
York Indians were satisAed and for many 
years made no claims. But the older ones 
; died, and the younger ones at length set 
up a claim that they had not been paid for 
their conquest lands on the Susquehanna. 
Iu the meantime many settlers had moved 
upon these lands. The Cayugas were the 
I most persistent and annoying in pressing 
these claims. At length, on October 11, 
1736, these lands, as far west as the Blue 
Mountain range, and eastward to the head 
springs flowing into the Susquehanna, 
were again purchased at a treaty in Phila¬ 
delphia. After this treaty adjourned, and 
some of the delegates had gone home, an 
afterthought came to the Proprietary 
party : As the Six Nations seemed to be 
[ setting up unexpected claims of conquest 
rights, it was thought it would be a good 
plan to get a release from them to all the 
lands eastward as far as the Delaware. 
Accordingly an explanatory deed was got 
up stating that the true intent and mean- 
j ing of the other deed was that it should 
embrace all tbe lands eastward as far as 
the Delaware. This was a most trans¬ 
parent falsehood. Not until white means 
1 black can eastward limits on the head of 
streams running into the Susquehanna be 
deflned as intended to extend to the Dela- 
, ware. There is not a particle of evidence 
that the Six Nations, piior to this, claimed 
the right to sell tbe lands of the Dela¬ 
wares. It is true, the Delawares were a 
conquered tributary people, but this in In¬ 
dian pol tics did not mean always a light 
to alienate the soil^ Land selling was in¬ 
deed a European innovation, the full 
meaning of which the Indians were slow 
to realize. As long as they sold and still 
occupied nearly all of it, the sale meant 
little; when it meant dispossession then 
trouble ensued. Occupancy was the only 
soil right that the Indian knew before the 
presents at treaties gave them the land¬ 
selling itch. This supplementary, ex¬ 
planatory deed, dated October 25, 1736, 
fourteen days after the other, was not for 
sale of land that they claimed, but was 
given at the request of the white men to 
cover, or prevent, any claims the Six Na- 














5 


Treah/ at Lancaster, 17-AL 


tions might set up to the lands already 
purchased of tha Delawares. It was also 
t used, and, perhaps, designed to be used, 
in 1742, to induce the Six Nations to inter¬ 
fere and force the Delawares to leave some 
of these lands, as comprised in the “Walk¬ 
ing purchase.” Canassatego’s speech, in 
ordering the Delawares to leave these 
lands, is famous in history, and aroused 
the dormant resentment of the Delawares. 
He called them women, denied their right 
to sell land, ordered them to leave, said they 
ought to be taken ny the hair of the head 
and shaken severely till they recovered 
good sense, and forbid them, their chil¬ 
dren, grandchildren to the latest posterity, 
forever hereafter to presume to meddle in 
land affairs. It was during the pending of 
these troubles that the treaty was held at 
v Lancaster in 1744, about lands in Mary¬ 
land and Virginia, when not a Delaware 
was allowed to be present. Among the 
many errors we have seen stated about this 
treaty, we select one. The editor of the 
American Antiquarian says: “By the 
treary of Lancaster, 1744. the Delawares 
sold their lands lying in Virginia”—Vol. 
1, 82. This is true with these exceptions, 
first, they did not sell their Virginia lands 
at Lancaster ; secondly, they never had any 
land in Virginia ; and thirdly, they were 
not at the Lancaster treaty in 1744, the 
Six Nations having forbid the presence of 
any of them at that treaty. 

A Fact Hitherto Unnoticed. 

It is a remarkable fact, which has 
hitherto been unnoticed, that in the great 
wars of the Western cantons of the Five 
Nations against the Susquehannocks, which 
were waged chiefly about 1666 and 1675, 
the Mohawks took no part, nor did there a 
single Mohawk appear at the treaty in 
Philadelphia in 1786, when the last sale of 
these conquest rights was made to the 
Penns. Nor did there appear a single 
Mohawk at Lancaster, when the claims of 
similar rights were to be disposed of to 
Maryland, and other claims to lands in 
Virginia. They had nothing to do in con¬ 
quering the Minquas and they would have 
nothing to say in selling their lands. The 
explanation of this is no doubt to be found 
in the special examination of Governor 
Andras, who, in 1675, “did endeavor to be 
rightly informed of things relating to that 
war, and found that the Susquehan¬ 
nocks were reputed by the Maques (Mo¬ 
hawks) as their offspring.” There can be 
no doubt that the Susquehanna Minques 
were an old diverging branch of the Mo¬ 
hawks, and there was an old friendship, 


which forbid them to war against their 
kindred, and yet the laws of the Five Na¬ 
tion Confederacy forbid also any assist¬ 
ance. The absent nation, for whom Con¬ 
rad Weiser was authorized by the allies to 
sign his name, at the Lancaster treaty, as 
mentioned by Marshe, was the Mohawks, 
into which Weiser had been adopted. 

As early as 1736, at the treaty, the Gov¬ 
ernor of Pennsylvania was earnestly pressed 
that he would write to the Governors of 
Maryland and Virginia to make them (the 
western New York Indians) satisfaction 
for their lands in those States. They say 
“ all the lauds on the Susquehanna and at 
Chanandowa (Shenandoah) were theirs and 
they must be satisfied for them.” In reply 
it was remarked to them that “ the lands 
on Susquehanna we believe belong to the 
Six Nations by the conquest of the Indians 
on that river, but how their pretentions 
are to be made good to the lands to the 
southward we know not.” At the treaty 
op July 7, 1 842. Canassatego again intro- 7*s 
duced theirTsTaims to lands in Maryland, 
desiring to know what had been done in 
the matter, saying “you will inform the 
person whose people are seated on our 
lands that that country belongs to us in 
right of conquest—we have bought it with 
our blood and taken it from our enemies 
in fair war; we expect such considera¬ 
tion as the land is worth ; press him to 
send us a positive answer ; let him say yes 
or no ; if he says yes, we will treat with 
him ; if no, we are able to do ourselves 
justice, and we will do it by going to take 
payment on ourselves.” 

Pennsylvania as a Go-Between. 

These alarming words caused a special 
messenger to be sent to Maryland, and 
measures were taken for the treaty which 
came off at Lancaster in 1744. Though 
nothing was said in 1742 about Virginia, 
yet the demand in 1736, and the prospects 
of a war with France, induced the King and 
his Virginia colony to treat with these In¬ 
dians at the same time and place. Conrad 
Weiser was sent to Onondago to make the 
arrangements. There was a shrewd pur¬ 
pose in the background to use the occasion 
to prevent them from espousing the cause 
of France, and the Pennsylvania Colonial 
Records show how nicely it was managed. ^ 
Pennsylvania, having in 1837 met the de¬ 
mands of these Indians as to their claim on 
the lands in that Province below the moun¬ 
tains, was in a position to act as a go- 
between and secure their friendship to 
Maryland and Virginia, and all three were 
alike interested in view of the coming 




I 


G 


Mar she's Journal . 


troubles with France and her Canadian 
Provinces. At the treaty the Mary¬ 
landers denied their rights to land in that 
Province, and pointed to their deed of 
purchase from the Susquehannocks in 
1652 as covering all or nearly all their 
lands. The reply was very well put. 
“ We acknowledge the deed to be good 
and valid, and that the Conestoga or 
Susquehanna Indians had a right to sell 
those lands unto you, for they were then 
theirs ; but since that time we have con¬ 
quered them and their country now belongs 
to us, and the lands we demanded satisfac¬ 
tion for are no part of the lands comprised 
in those deeds—they are the Cohogon- 
ontas (Potomac) lands.” This is one of 
the proofs that the territory of the ancient 
Susquehannocks extended to the Potomac, 
probably from the falls up to Harper’s 
Ferry. The old Maryland purchase was not 
defined in its western limits and certainly 
did not include a part of Maryland 
north of the head of the bay. Just 
prior to their subjugation by the New York 
Indians the Susquehannocks had somehow 
got into a war with their old friends in 
Maryland and suffered greatly. Evans, in 
his Analysis, written soon after this treaty, 
gives this explanation : Bell, of Maryland, 
“by the defeat of many hundreds, gave 
them a blow from which they never re¬ 
covered, and for that reason the con¬ 
federates (Six Nations) never claimed but 
to Conewago Falls ; and that as the Sus¬ 
quehannocks had abandoned the western 
shore of Maryland before their conquest, 
the confederates confined their claims 
northward of a line drawn from the Cone¬ 
wago Falls to the North Mountain, where 
it crosses the Potomac, and thence to the 
head branches of St. James River.” The 
point doubtless is Harper’s Ferry, 
though the Blue Mountain and the Blue 
Ridge are not the same range, though often 
confounded. At the treaty the eastern 
bounds were not defined. They wanted 
pay, and having got it they cared nothing 
further about the grounds of their claim, 
nor how it was divided between Maryland 
and Pennsylvania. The claim for pay for 
Virginia was not founded on the conquest 
of the Susquehannas, but upon other tribes. 

The Lands Sold Then Settled by White People 

The Virginians claimed that they had long 
held peaceable possession, and that they 
found those lands uninhabited and free to 
be entered upon by the King. They said, 
“ Tell us what n t.ions you conquered any 
lands from in Virginia, how long it 
is since, and what possession you have 


had.” The answer was,“we have the right 
of conquest—a right too dearly pur¬ 
chased, and which cost us too much blood 
to be given up without any reason at all. 

.All the world knows wo conquered 

the several nations living on Susquehanna, 
Cohongoronto and on the back of the great 
■ mountains in Virginia. The Conoy-uch- 
such-roonan, the Coch-nan-was roonan, the 
Tokoa-irough-roonan and the Copnut-skirr- 
ough-roonan feel the effects of our con¬ 
quests, being now a part of our nations and 
, their lands at our disposal.” They said it 
was not true that the King of England had 
conquered the Indians that lived there. 
“We will allow that they have conquered 
the Saclidagugh-roonan (Powbatans) and 
drove back the f uscarroraws, and that they 
ha'-e on that account a right to some part 
of Virginia but as to what lies beyond the 
mountain we conquered the nations resid¬ 
ing there, and that land, if ever the Virgin¬ 
ians get a good right to it, it must be by us.” 

We cannot properly identify and locate the 
.four tribes said to have beeu conquered. 
The first were probably the Conoysor Gan- 
awese. The seco; d probably gave the name 
to the Kanawha. The lands sold were the 
j Shenandoah Valley and the country west¬ 
ward. The Six Nations did not understand 
I the sale to include the lands on the Ohio, 
i ow West Virginia. These were included 
| in the sale erf November 5, 1708. made.by 
| Sir William Johnson. Some writers errone- 
C'Usly say the lands sold at Lancaster were 
those on the Ohio. This is not the case, for 
I they were lands just then settled by the 
white people, and there were then no set¬ 
tlers on the Ohio. The western limits of 
Virginia « ere then not defined. 

Pennsylvania never called in question 
these conquest rights Had they done so at 
1 the severa treaties for Susquehanna lands, 
the Indians would then doubtless have given 
us some interesting facts as to those con- 
^quest*, which are low forever lost. 

Saturday, June the 16th, 1744. 

This day the Hon. Edmund Jenings 1 
and the Hon. Philip Thomas, esqs., 2 of the 

1 Edmund .Jennings was Secretary of the 
Maryland Province many years, and quite 
prouiinentin affairs there; bu even these tacts 
have not p'eserved us a record ot the individ¬ 
ual. He resided at Annapolis, and his name is 
I ot frequent occurrence in Maryland history, 
but 'hat is ail we have learned of him. 

a Philip Thomas, the eldest 9on ot Samuel and 
Mary (Hutchins) Thomas, was born in theyear 
1091, in Anne Arundel county Ml, and was 
fifty years old at th time ot the tre ity at Lan¬ 
caster. He was quite prominent in Lord Bal¬ 
timore’s Province, and a "ember of the Mary¬ 
land Council. He died in Janu ry, 1763, aged 
nearly 69 years. Mr. Thomas was twice mar- 















































































> 




















Treaty at Lancaster , 1744' 


1 


council of state in Maryland, having here¬ 
tofore been appointed (by a special power 
from his Excellency Thomas Bladen, esq., 1 \ 
Governor, under his hand, and the seal of 
that Province) Commissioners for treating 
with the Six Nations of Indians, on behalf 
of the Province, concerning some lands 
claimed by them, and to renew all former . 
treaties betwixt the Six Nations and this 
government, agreed to proceed on their 
embassy. 

I was required by them to stay at Anna- i 
polis, and receive the bills of exchange (to 
defray our expenses) from Mr. Ross, clerk 
of the Council; and after receiving the 
bills on Sunday, p. m., I went to Mr. 
Thomas’s, where I lodged that night. 

Sunday 17th. 

Mr. Commissioner Jenings went over 
Chesapeake Bay, as also did Mr. Benedict 
Calvert, 2 who accompanied him to the 
treaty. 

Monday, June 18tb, 1744. 

Breakfasted at Mr. Thomas’s about 8 
o’clock this morning, and soon after set 
out with him and the Rev. Mr. Craddock 3 
(who accompanied us in quality of chap¬ 
lain to the Maryland Commissioners) for 
Patapscoe. Arrived at James Moore’s 
ordinary, 4 at the head of the Severn 
river about. one o’clock, where we 
dined; but such a dinner was prepaied 
for us, as never was either seen as cooked 
in the Highlands of Scotland or the 
Isles of Orkney. It consisted of six eggs 

ried—first to Frances Holland, and second, 
August 11, 1724, to Anne Chew, daughter of 
Samuel and Mary Chew, who died in July, 1777. 

i Thomas Bladen waaason ot oneof the early 
settlers ot Maryland; went to England in 1732, [ 
where he subsequently married Barbara Jans¬ 
sen, daughter of Sir Theodore Janssen, Baro¬ 
net of Wimbledon Surry. She was the eldest 
sister of the wile of t ord Ba'timore. Mr. Bla- 
don returned to Maryland in 1742, and was ap¬ 
pointed Proprietary Governor, a position he 
held until he was relieved by Samuel Ogle, in 
March, 1747. He sailed lor Condon in the fol¬ 
lowing June, and probab'y died in England 
prior to the war for in dependence. 

i Benedict Calvert was the second Charles 
Lord Baltimore's natural son. 

a The Kev. Thomas Cradock migrated from 
England in 1742, and became Rector of St. 
Thomas’ pari-b, in Baltimore county, 4th of 
February, 1745. and kept aschool of much cele¬ 
brity. lie was a fine scholar, and in 17-53 pub¬ 
lished a revision of the Psalms in heroic mea-. 
sure. He died ou the 7th ot May, 1770, in Balti¬ 
more. 

4 The keeping of ordinaries, or inns as called 
in later years, was a business that seems to 
have possessed much attraction for many of 
tbe people of the country during the last cen¬ 
tury, and many of tbe most respectable fami¬ 
lies were engaged in it. The lact is, prior to 
the Revolution, those residing along main 


fried with six pieces of bacon, with some 
clammy pone or Indian bread. But as 
hunger knows little of cleanliness, and 
withal very impatient, we fell to and soon 
devoured the victuals. Our liquor was 
sorry rum, mixed with water and sugar, 
which bears the heathenish name of 
bumbo. Of this we drank about a pint, to 
keep down the nauseous eggs and bacon. 

p m —Paid for our slovenly dinner and 
liquor aud pursued our journey to Mrs. 
Hughes’s, at Patapscoe river, (over which 
she keeps a ferry) to whose house we 
came about 3 o’clock. Here we re¬ 
freshed ourselves with some good 
coffee, aud toast and butter, which was 
served to us in a neat and handsome man¬ 
ner. We likewise drank a bottle of gener¬ 
ous wine, then paid our reckoning and 
went over the river to Whetstone Point, 
and from thence proceeded to Wm. Rog¬ 
ers’s ordinary in Baltimore town, being 
three miles distant from Mrs. Hughes’s. 

Monday Evening in Baltimore County. 

I left Mr. Thomas and the Rev. Parson 
at the ordinary and went to Mr. Robert 
North’s, where I supped with some blithe 
company, and from thence returned to 
Rogers’s. Mr. Bourdillon, * minister of 
this parish, visited his brother of the cloth, 
and stayed with us till near 11 o’clock this 
night. It was with this gentleman and his 
wife that I came into Maryland on the 1st 
of January, 1737. She is niece to Sir 
Theodore Janssen, Baronet. When Mr. 

roads ot tr ivel were compelled in self-protec¬ 
tion to secure licenses tor ordinaries, “ being,” 
as an applicant st tes, “much oppressed by 
travelers and others.” At tbe close of the war 
for independence, a majority of the officers in 
that patriotic struggle took to this business, 
b ing disabled by service, or too aged to follow 
their former occupations. Up until late years 
the keeper ot an inn was considered the most 
prominent man in the neighborhood, and ap¬ 
preciated accordingly. Recently there came 
into our possession a‘list of all keepers of inns 
or ordinaries kept within the limits of Lancas¬ 
ter, Dauphin. Lebanon and Cumberland coun¬ 
ties, or- r a century ago—the majority dt them 
being the ancestors ot very many prominent 
families in our State. We presume the latter 
would not thank ns to publish the list, as the 
late lohu a Smull once remarked to another 
gentle an, in our he ring, “you and 1 surely 
belong to the aristoerac , for our ancestors 
kept ta r ern ” 

5 The Rev. Benedict Bourdillon, who came 
from r ngland in the same vessel with Mr. 
Marshe, and landed in Maryland on the 1st of 
January. 1737. His first arrival in America was 
prior to 1735. He was a cousin ot Lady Balti¬ 
more and a nephew of Sir Theodore Jansene. 
Mr. Bourdillon became the Rector of st. Paul’s 
Parish, Baltimore, 29th of July, 1739, and con¬ 
tinued as such until the 5th ot June, 1745. when 
he died, t'rior to his visit to England in 1730, 
he preached iu Somerset. 




8 


Mar she's Journal. 


Bourdillon had bidden us bon foir, we re¬ 
tired to rest our wearied limbs, having rode 
forty-four miles this hot day. 

Tuesday Morning, June 19th 1744. 

Rose about 5 o’clock, and ordered 
breakfast to be got presently, which was 
done. Drank tea and then mounted our 
horses to reach Edward Day’s, who keeps 
the ferry on this side Joppa. Came to 
his house about 11 o’clock, baited our¬ 
selves and horses, and then passed over 
Gun-Powder river on his ferry boat to 
Joppa town. 

At Joppa. 1 Rested at Mr. Brown’s who 
keeps a brick ordinary. Here we dined on 
a boiled ham and some chickens fried with 
bacon. Drank good wine and small-beer, 
and rendered ourselves fit to encounter the 
fatigue of riding 2a miles further in this 
sultry weather. 

Here I waited on the Rev. Hugh Deane, 
who is parson of this parish, to deliver him 
a packet of letters, &c., I received from Dr. 
Lyon at Baltimore town. He read to me 
some of the news mentioned in his Euro¬ 
pean letters, concerning.the Queen of Hun¬ 
gary, the King of Prussia, and the Lord 
knows how many other potentates ; but as 
I was neither politician nor author I gave 
but little attention to it. I understood Mr. 
D. had his intelligence from his wife’s 
brother, who has some place in the govern¬ 
ment at home, or is in dependence of favors 
from some great man; God help him ! 

After dinner, about 3 in the afternoon, 
we took the route to Mr. Benjamin Chew’s, 2 * * * * * 


1 Joppa, on Gunpowder River, was at this 

period a town of “no small importance.” It 
was designated as the county town oi Balti¬ 
more county by the Provincial Assembly of 
1724. Great ex ectations were built upon it 
in becoming the metropoii-i of Maryland but 
with the founding of Baltimore, and its subse¬ 
quent rDe into a town of more formidable di¬ 
mensions, the hopes which centred a ound 
Joppa began to wane “Her trade,” says 
Scharf, “was drawn off; her population 
dwindled; her store-houses fell to ruin ; her 
wharves rotted, and her harbor tilled up with 
mud.A solitary house, once a stately man¬ 

sion, built ot bricks imported from mgland, 
and a tew mouldering arave-stones, overgrown 
by weed and grass, still mark the site ot the 
once flourishing town of Joppa.” 

2 Benjamin Chew, fourth son of Dr. Samuel 

Chew, was born on West River, Maryland, 29th 

of November. 1722 In his earlv years bis pa 

rents removed to that part of the Province of 

Pennsylvania now Delaware He was edu¬ 

cated at the sch ol or academy at Newark, 
Delaware, studied law unoer Andrew Hamil¬ 

ton, of Philadelphia, and at the Inner Temple, 
in London. He return, d to America in 1743, 
and, according to Mr Marsh", must have held 
the position of a Justice of the Peace for Cecil 
county, Md., the following year. He was sub¬ 
sequent y Speaker ot the Assembly ot the 
Three Lower Counties, and appointed Attor- 


] in Cecil county, whose house is distant from 
\ Joppa 26 miles. Betwixt six and seven of 
the clock in the evening, we reached Sus- 
J quehanna lower ferry; 8 we tarried some 
small time, and sent our horses over in a 
boat by themselves. From hence we went 
to the eastern side of Susquehanna, and 
then rode to Mr. Chew’s, almost a mile and 
a-half distance from the river. At this 
house we supped very heartily, for which 
our priest returned thanks. After supper 
| we had a good deal of chat on various sub¬ 
jects, and then, very willingly, retired to 
| bed. 

Wednesday Morning, June 30th, 1744. 

We breakfasted at Mr. Chew’s, and then 
set out, with him, for Nottingham town¬ 
ship, which place we reached about a 
quarter of an hour after ten this morn¬ 
ing. We put up our horses at Thomas 
Hughes’s, who keeps here an ordinary. 
He was an honest, facetious, and sober 
Quaker, a man of good plain sense and 
j character. Here we purposed to dine, and 
| bespoke a dinner accordingly, which was 
prepared for us about two o’clock. Here 
we were shaved by our friend and com¬ 
panion Mr. Chew, for no barber could be 
got in the whole neighborhood. I thought 
it a little odd our friend (who was a justice 


ney General ot Pennsylvania January 14, 1753. 
He was a member of'the Provincial Council 
the same year, and in 1756 Recorder ot the City 
of Philadelphia, which latter position he held 
for fifteen years. He was Kegi ter General of 
Wills about 1770, and April 29tb, 1774. was ap¬ 
pointed Chief Justice ot Pennsylvania on the 
resignation ot Wi liam Allen. YVhen the Revo¬ 
lution broke out he sympathized with the 
Mother country, although h^ took no active 
part in the contest. In 1777, when the Govern¬ 
ment of Pennsylvania, on the recommenda¬ 
tion of Congress, arrested a number of the 
leading Friends of Philadelphia, who were 
outspoken tories, and banished them to Vir¬ 
ginia, Chief Justice Chew and John Penn, 
the last ProprietaryGovernorot Pennsylvania, 
were als“ placed under surveillance, but al¬ 
lowed to retire to Mr. Chew’s property. Union 
forge, near Burlington, New Jersey, and re¬ 
leased from arrest the next year In 1791 Mr. 
Chew was appointed President ot the High 
Court of Errors and Appeals of the State i t 
Pennsylvania, and retained the position until 
the Court was abolished in 1808. Mr. Chew died 
at his residence, in Philadelphia, January 20, 
1810, and was buried in rt. Peter’s Church 
graveyard. He was twice married: first, June 
13, 1747. to Mary Galloway, daughter of John 
and Mary Galloway, ot Maryland, who died 
Nov. 9, 1755, aged 26 years,leaving issue ; mar¬ 
ried secondly, September 12, 1757, Elizabeth 
Oswald, daughter of James and Mary Oswald, 
v ho died May, 1819, aged 83 years, having fur¬ 
ther issue. 

3 This was the ferry at the mouth of the Sus¬ 
quehanna River, and called lower , in contra¬ 
distinction to the one established later by 
Thomas Cresap, near where Port Deposit now 
stands. 


» 




































* 




















Treaty at Lancaster, 1744- 


0 


of the peace in his county) should officiate 
as our tonsor; but as we could get no 
other, he purely out of good nature did the 
office of one. 

This township is a large body of land, 
consisting of between 30,000 and 40,000 
acres. It lies in Chester county within the 
Province of Pennsylvania. It is chiefly 
settled by Quaker farmers, who strive to 
imitate those in our mother country in 
every thing. There have been great disputes 
between the present Lord Baltimore, pro¬ 
prietor of Maryland, and Messrs. Penns, 
proprietors of Pennsylvania, concerning 
this place; the first averring it to lie within 
the bounds of his province, and the others 
that it is contained within theirs. The in¬ 
habitants (being Quakers) are desirous of 
living under the Penns’ government, by 
reason of the small taxes they are burthened 
with; and more especially as in that they 
are not obliged to pay anything to the 
priests of the steeple-houses; whereas, in 
Maryland, by a law made anno 1704, every 
male, white and black, and also black 
women, above the age of 16, and under 
the age of 60, are obliged to pay 40 pounds 
; of tobacco per poll to the incumbent of 
their respective parishes. This is a most 
iniquitous tax, and is a most grievous bur¬ 
then to those who have many white men 
servants, and a great many slaves, which 
a great number of people have in Maryland. 

The difference between the proprietors 
of the two provinces is likely to be ended 
by the Lord Chancellor, before whom a 
suit is depending, brought by the Penns 
against Lord Baltimore for not standing 
to, or fulfilling some agreement relating to 
the bounds of both provinces, wherein the 
Quakers had been too sly for his Lordship, 
whereby their several titles may be drawn 
in question. 

Wednesday, p. in. 

There was a great disputation betwixt 
the Hon. Mr. Thomas and one Gatchell, 1 
an inhabitant of this place, concerning 
carnal weapons. The latter being one of 
the followers of George Fox, strenuously 
insisted that it was not lawful to use any 
offensive weapon whatever. As this is the 
common cant of that set of people, it is in 
vain to think of arguing them out of it, 
though founded on no reason. 

i This was probably Elisha Gatchell. of East 
Nottingham township, Chester county, Pa., a 
prominent and active citizen in his day, who 
had settled in that township prior to 171(5 He 
died at an advanced age in the winter of 1753-4, 
and his widow liachel, about, 1760. They became 
Friends alter their arrivil in this country. 
Their descendants are at the present promi¬ 
nent members of the Society ot Friends in 
Chester county. 


In this government subsists a quarrel be- 
twwixt the Governor of it and the Quaker 
members of the House of Assembly, occa¬ 
sioned by the latter’s not consenting to a 
militia law, which they will not grant for 
the defense of the province. Who has the 
most reason on their side, I know not; but I 
really cannot blame the Quakers for not con¬ 
senting to such a law, unless the power of 
putting it in execution should be lodged in 
the House of Assembly, and such officers 
to be appointed by them. 

At six this evening the Hon. Edmund 
Jennings, esq., Col. Thomas Colvill and 
Col. Robert King (being the other honor¬ 
able commissioners for Maryland), with 
Mr. Calvert, arrived here from Col. Col- 
vill’s, in Cecil county. We all lodged at 
Mr. Hughes’s, and agreed to set out for 
Lancaster early in the morning, and to go 
thither over the Barrens. 

Expenses at Mr. Hughes’s paid in silver 
currency to the value of £2 17s 2d, Pennsyl¬ 
vania currency. 

Thursday Morning, Jane 31, 1744. 

Breakfasted before five ; then prepared 
ourselves for riding. Set out from hence 
with the Commissioners, Mr. Calvert, Mr. 
Gatchel, and our landlord, who undertook 
to be our guide to Lancaster town. We 
were joined on the road by some Quakers, 
who accompanied us to our designed stage. 

At eleven o’clock we arrived at one 
Sheppard’s mill, having rode twenty miles 
from Nottingham. Here we all baited, 
and refreshed ourselves with some good 
neat’s tongue, cold ham and madeira wine. 
We eat our repast under a tree, upon a 
long plank, close to which was a trough, 
and in that our horses were fed. We 
rested at this place about an hour and 
an half, and then pursued our journey to 
Lancaster. From hence we had a good 
road, the land being less hilly and stony 
than that we had rode over in the morning. 
Here are several large and fine farms, 
settled by the Germans. They sow all 
kinds of grain, and have very plentiful 
harvests. Their houses are chiefly built 
with stone, and generally seated near some 
brook or stream of water. They have very 
lfrge meadows, which produce a great 
deal of hay, and feed therewith a variety 
of cattle, &c. 

Thursday p m. 

Arrived at Lancaster town about two 
o’clock, and put up our horses at Peter 
Won-all's 2 who here keeps an inn. Here I 

2 Peter Worrall’s inn was the “ Cross Keys,” 
located on West King street. He was a promi¬ 
nent Quaker, a descendant of Peter * orrall, 
of Marples, Chester county; came from Phila- 


10 


Mar she's Jo urnal. 


bespoke a dinner for our Commissioners, 
and the Maryland gentlemen, which was 
soon got ready, to our great comfort. Pro¬ 
cured a room and two beds, in Worrall’s 
house for our chaplain and myself. 

Neither the Governor of Pennsylvania 
nor the Virginia Commissioners were ar¬ 
rived at the time when we did; but about 
six in the evening they came hither, at¬ 
tended by several Virginia gentlemen and 
some from the city of Philadelphia. 

Here we were informed that the Indians 
would not arrive till to-morrow, they 
marching very slow, occasioned by their 
having a great many small children and 
old men. 

The Old Lancaster Court House. 

Messrs. Calvert, Craddock and myself 
went into and viewed the Court House, * 1 
of this town. It is a pretty large brick 
building two stories high. The ground 
room where the justices of this county 
hold their court is very spacious. There 
is a handsome bench, and railed in, wher- 
on they sit, and a chair in the midst of it, 
which is filled by the judge. Below this 
bench is a large table of half oval form ; 
round this, and under their Worships, sit 
the county clerk and the several attorneys 
of the court, who, here, as well as in most 
other courts of the plantations, plead as 
counsellors. There are particular seats 
and places allotted to the sheriff, crier, &c. 

Fronting the justices’ bench, and on each 
side of it, are several long steps or stairs, 
raised each above the other, like the steps 
leading into the north door of St. Paul’s. 
On these steps stand the several auditors 
and spectators when a court is held here. 
It was on these that the Indian chiefs sat 
when they treated with the several govern¬ 
ments. This Court House is capable to 

delphla as early as 1735, and in 1711 man i. d the 
widow of Samuel Bethei, who ten years bet re 
had established the “cross Keys Inn.” and to 
the keeping ot which he succeeded. He was a 
justice of the peace and a member of the Pro¬ 
vincial Assembly, in which latter body he 
served from 1747 to 1754, resigning his seat b - 
cause he was conseientkiHsly opposed to levy¬ 
ing a tax for the purpose of carrying on mili¬ 
tary operations. He removed to near Phila¬ 
delphia about 1715, where he di d during the 
Revolutionary era (History of Lancaster 
County pp. 3K2, 394.) 

i This Court House, built in 1739. was de¬ 
stroyed by Are in the early part ot June , 1784. 
It was p obably the work ot an incendiary. A 
new Court House wassubsequently erected on 
the same site in Centre Square, which was 
completed in 1787. This building was occupied 
by the Legislature ot the Sta'e from 1799 to 
1812, while in the former, ot which Mr Mars he 
speaks, tor a short period, during the darkest 
hours of the war forindepende ce, satthe Con¬ 
tinental Congress. 


contain above 800 persons without incom¬ 
moding each other. 

When we had surveyed this room we 
went up stairs into one overhead. This is 
a good room, and has a large chimney. In 
this the justices sit in the month of Feb¬ 
ruary for the convenience of the fire. 
Adjoining to this room is a smaller one, 
where the juries are kept to agree on their 
verdict. 

On the top of the court house is a kind 
of cupola. We ascended a ladder and got 
into it. From hence we had a complete 
view of the whole town, and the country 
several miles round, and likewise of part 
of Susquehanna river at twelve miles 
distance. 

A Dirty Sixteen Tear Old Town. 

This town has not been begun to be 
built above sixteen years. It is conveni¬ 
ently laid out into sundry streets, and one 
main street, in the midst of which stands 
the court house and market. Through 
this runs the road to the back country 
on the Susquehanna. There are several 
cross-streets on each side of the main 
street, which are indifferently well built, 
as to quantity of houses. 

The inhabitants are chiefly High Dutch, 
Scotch-Irish, some few English families, 
and unbelieving Israelites, who deal very 
considerably in this place. 

The spirit of cleanliness has not as yet 
in the least troubled the major part of the 
inhabitants ; for, in general, they are very 
great sluts and slovens. When they clean 
their houses, which, by the bye, is very 
seldom, they are unwilling to remove the 
filth far from themselves, for they place 
it close to their doors, which, in the sum¬ 
mer time, breeds an innumerable quantity 
of bugs, fleas and vermin. 

Few Churches and Plenty of Sects. 

The religions which prevail here are 
hardly to be numbered. Here are Dutch 
Calvinists, who have a church built with 
square logs, and their interspaces filled up 
with clay. In this is a small organ, good 
for little, and worse played cn by the 
organist. 

The sect of Luther have a church like¬ 
wise. This is more spacious than that of 
the Calvinists, being built of stone, and is 
much larger than the other. The minister of 
this church is a gentleman of good charac¬ 
ter, and by his true pastoral conduct keeps 
his congregation in good order. The minis¬ 
ters ot the Dutch churches are allowed no 
certain stipend for preaching, but are paid 
at the will of their hearers. This is a great 
tie upon them to do their duty, and makes 




























































































































































































































































































Treaty at Lancaster , HJfJ/. 


11 


them more diligent than our clergy are. 
Happy people ! In this we may envy them. 

A clergyman of the Church of England 
sometimes officiates in the Court House, 
there being no church here built by those 
of that persuasion. There are great num¬ 
bers of Irish Presbyterians and several 
Jews, as I hinted before, with divers others 
that neither themselves nor any one else 
can tell what sect they follow or imitate. 

The houses for the most part are built 
and covered with wood, except some few 
which are built of brick and stone. They 
are generally low, seldom exceeding two 
stories. All the owners of lots and houses 
here pay a ground rent, greater or less, ac¬ 
cording to the grant of them by James 
Hamilton, esq., who is the proprietor of 
the town. 

There are hills which environ Lancaster, 
as likewise some thick woods, which in the 
summer render it very hot, especially in 
the afternoon. The soil is then dry and 
very sandy, which, when a fresh wind 
blows, almost chokes the inhabitants. 

Bad Water, a Good Market, Fleas and Bugs. 

The water here is very bad, occasioned 
by their springs, and even wells, being 
stored with limestone. This gave me a 
looseness and palled my appetite, but soon 
left me after I refrained from drinking the 
water by itself. They have a very good 
market in this town, well filled with pro¬ 
visions of all kinds and prodigiously cheap. 

Our Commissioners and company supped 
at Worrall’s, and passed away an hour or 
two very agreeably, after which I retired 
to bed, but had not long reposed myself 
when I was most fiercely attacked by the 
neighboring Dutch fleas and bugs which 
were ready to devour both me and the 
minister; however, after killing great quan¬ 
tities of my nimble enemies, I got about 
two hours sleep. Mr. Calvert was more 
inhumanly used by them than myself, as 
was likewise Mr. Craddock. On the next 
night Mr. Calvert left our lodgings and laid 
in the Court House chamber, among the 
young gentlemen from Virginia, who there 
had beds made on the floor for that purpose. 

Friday, June 2 i, 1744. 

Rose between 4 and 5. Breakfasted with 
Mr. Commissioners Thomas, Colonels Col- 
vi'l and King, at Worrall's. 

The Indian chiefs not being yet come, we 
had no business to do. 

The honorable, the Commissioners of 
Virginia, gave our Commissioners and the 
several Maryland gentlemen an invitation to 
dine with them in the Court House, which 
we did betwixt one and two. During our 


dinner the deputies of the Six Nations 1 
with their followers and attendants, to the 
number of 252, arrived in town. Several 
of their squaws, or wives, with some small 
children, rode on horseback, which is very 
unusual with them. They brought their 
fire arms and bows and arrows, as well as 
tomahawks. A great concourse of people 
followed them. They marched in very 
good order, with Cannasateego, one of the 
Onondago chiefs, at their head, who, when 
he came near to the Court House wherein 
we were dining, sung, in the Indian lan¬ 
guage, a song inviting us to a renewal of 
all treaties heretofore made and that now 
to be made. 

Mr. Weiser, 2 the interpreter, who is 
highly esteemed by the Indians, and is one 
of their council of state (though a German 
by b : rth) conducted them to some vacant 
lots in the back part of the town, where 
suudiy poles and boards were placed. Of 
these, and some boughs of trees from the 
w< ol8, the Ind'aus made wigwams or 

1 Originally, the league formed by the Iro¬ 
quois tribes comprised five nations—the Mo¬ 
hawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Sen¬ 
ecas. The early French writers styled the first 
two the lower or inferior Iroquois, while the 
others were denominated he upper or supe- 
r or Iroquois, because they were located nearer 
the sources or the St. Lawrence. The Mohawks, 
who are commonly supposed to be the first 
nation in the confederacy, and were consid¬ 
ered the most “warlike people in the land,” 
were also styl’ d elde - brothers of the other 
nations, and so esteemed bv them. In 1714 the 
Five Nations became the Six Nations by adopt¬ 
ing the Tuscarora tribe, which had been expel¬ 
led from North Carolina and Virginia. 

2 Conrad VVeiser was one of the most noted 
personages of the Provincial era, and a man 
who deserves to be held in everlasting remem¬ 
brance. He was the s n of John Conrad Weiser 
and his wife nna Magdalena Cebele, of Af- 
staedt, Wurtembnrg, whe e he was born on 
the 2d day ot November, 1696. In the year 1710 
he accompanied bis parents to America with a 
company ot Palatines, who immigrated to New 
York, under the auspices ot good Qneen Anne 
of Knglatid,and who were settled in a body on 
Livingston Manor, in Columbia county, for the 
production ot naval stores. In 1713 the Weisers 
and 150 other famine's removed to Seoharieand 
the Mohawk country, where young conrad 
was schooled in the language which enabled 
him i ter in life to render valuable i-ervices to 
the Proprl tary Government ot Pennsylvania. 
In 1723 he with many other German families, 
came down the Susquehanna to the mouth of 
the Swiitava, uo which stream thi-y settled in 
what was atterwards known as the Tulpe- 
hocken settlement Here he took up a tract 
or land in Heidelberg township, Lancaster 
county, now eerkscounty, and began farming. 
His fluency in Mohawn ret ommended him to 
the notice of the Proprietary Governors, > nd 
at the special request of the deputies ot the Six 
Nations, who rnetin conference Governor Gor- 
d in in 1732, he was appointed by the latter in¬ 
terpreter tor that Confederation. From this 
time he was identified with the history of the 
Province ot Pennsylvania in a'l matters rela- 




12 


Mar she's Journal. 


cabins, wherein they resided during the 
treaty; they will not, on any occasion ' 
whatsoever, dwell, or even stay, in houses ; 
built by white people. 

They placed their cabins according to 
the rank each nation of them holds in 
their grand council. The Onondagoes 
nation was placed on the right hand, and 
at the upper end were the others, according 
to their several dignities. 

After dining, and drinking the loyal 
healths, all the younger gentlemen of Vir¬ 
ginia, Maryland and. Pennsylvania went 
with Mr. Conrad Weiser to the Indian 
camp, where they had erected their seve ral 
cabins. We viewed them all, and heartily j 
welcomed Cannasateego and Tachanuntie, 
(alias the Black Prince) two chiefs of the 
Onondagoes, to town. They shaked us by 
the hands and seemed very well pleased 
with us. I gave them some snuff, for 
which they returned me thanks in their 
language. 

The first of these sachems (or chiefs) j 
was a tall, well-made man, had a very full * 1 
chest and brawny limbs. He had a manly 
countenance, mixed with a good-natured 
smile. He was about sixty years of age ; 
very active, strong, and had a surprising 
liveliness in his speech, which I observed 
in the discourse betwixt him, Mr. Weiser 
and some of the sachems. 

Tachanuntie, 1 another sachem or chief 
of the same nation, was a tall, thin man ; 
old, and not so well featured as Cannasa¬ 
teego; I believe he may be near the same age 
with him. He is one of the greatest war¬ 
riors that ever the Five Nations produced, 
and has been a great war-captain for many 

ting to the Indians, and was sent to them on 
several important missions. He was named by 
them Taracbawagon. He served as a justice 
of the peace a number of years, and during the 
French and Indian wars was commissioned 
colonel of all forces raised west ot the Susque¬ 
hanna. He died on his farm on the 3th of 
July, 1760, and is buried in the family grave¬ 
yard near Wouielsdorf, Berks county. He leit 
a large family of children. 

i Tachanuntie, the Black Prince ot Onon¬ 
daga. is described by Count Zinzi dort, who 
met him in 1742, as “a terrible savage ” “On 
one o casion,” he writes, “he broke into the 
stockaded castle ot the enemy, scalped the in¬ 
habitants and escaped unhurt.” Loskiei states 
that “Tocanontie. an Iroquois Sachem was 
called the Black Prince because his chest was 
literally black with a network of ■ evlces and 
designs tatooed into the skin with gunpowder ” 
Spangenberg, in 1745, alludes to him as one of 
the chief men ot Onondaga, while Conrad 

Weiser in his journal gives the “ Black Prince” 
as the speaker on behalf of the Six Nations. 
His first appearance was at a council held at 
Stenton, in September, 1736 where he signed 
the deed for lands on the Susquehanna. (See 
Pa. Archiv. 1st ser., vol I, p. 494.) It is stated 
that he died in the jail at Montreal. I 


years past. He is also called tbe Black 
Prince, because, as I was informed, be 
was either begotten on an Indian 
woman by a negro, or by an In¬ 
dian chief on some negro woman ; but 
by which of the two I could not be 
well assured. The Governor of Canada, 
(whom these Indians call Onantio) will 
not treat with any of the Six Nations of 
Indians unless Tachanuntie is personally 
present, he having a great sway in all the 
Indian councils. 

Our interpreter, Mr. Weiser, desired us, 
whilst we were here, not to talk much of 
the Indians, nor laugh at their dress, or 
make any remarks on their behavior; if 
we did it would be very much resented by 
them, and might cause some differences to 
arise betwixt the white people and them. 
Besides, most of them understood Eng¬ 
lish, though they will not speak it when 
they are in treaty. 

The Indians in general were poorly 
dressed, having old match-coats and those 
ragged, few or no shirts and those they 
had as black as the Scotchman made the 
Jamaicans when he wrote in his letter they 
were as black as that £ blot. 

When they had rested some little space 
of time several of them began to paint 
themselves with divers sorts of colors, which 
rendered them frightful. Some of the 
others rubbed bear’s grease on their faces 
and then laid upon that a white paint. 
When we had made a sufficient survey of 
them and their cabins, we went to the 
Court House, where the Indians were ex¬ 
pected to meet the Governor of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, the Hon. George Thomas, esq., 2 and 
to be by him congratulated on their arrival 
at this town. 

Friday, p. m. 

Between 5 and 6 o’clock Mr. Weiser ac¬ 
companied the several Indian chiefs from 
their camp up to the Court House, which they 
entered and seated themselves after their 
own manner. Sood after, his Honor the 
Governor, the honorable the Commission¬ 
ers of Virginia, the honorable Commis¬ 
sioners of Maryland, and the young 
gentlemen from the three govern¬ 
ments, went into the Court House to the 
Indians. There the Governor and all the 

2 sir George Thomas, the son ot a wealthy 
planter, was born at Antigua, about 1700 He 
was a member of the Council of that island at 
the time of his appointment of Proprietary 
Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania, a 
position he held from 1738 to 1747. From 1752 
to 1766, he was Governor of the Leeward and 
Carribee Islands. In 1766 he w s created a 
Baronet. He died in London 11th of January. 
1775.—(See Dr. Egle’s History of Pennsylvania.) 









14 


Mar she's Journal. 


The Governor desired the interpreter to 
tell the Indians “ He was very glad to see 
them here, and should not trouble them 
with business this day, but desired they 
would rest themselves after their great 
journey.” This Mr. Weiser interpreted to 
them, whereat they seemed well enough 
pleased, and made the Governor a suitable 
answer. When this was done a good 
quantity of punch, wine, and pipes and 
tobacco, were given to the sachems, and 
the Governor and all the Commissioners 
drank to them, whom they pledged. When 
they had smoked some small time, and 
each drank a glass or two of wine and 
punch, they retired to their cabins. 

Our landlord showed me the book, 
wherein he keeps the account of the ex¬ 
penses of ours and the Virginia Commis¬ 
sioners, and which was ordered to be pro¬ 
duced every morning to me, to know ex¬ 
actly the amount of each day’s expense. 

Saturday, June 23, 1744, at Lancaster. 

This day I was seized with a lax and 
small fever, occasioned by drinking the 
water of this town. 

After breakfast, the Governor, the honor¬ 
able the commissioners, and several other 
gentlemen went to the Dunkers’ nunnery , 1 
about twelve miles from hence. They re¬ 
turned hither about six o’clock in the eve¬ 
ning. 

All this day the Indians staid in their 
wigwams, and it is usual for them to rest 
two days after their journey before they 
treat or do business with the English. 


After supper, this evening, I went with 
Mr. President Logan’s 2 son and divers other 
young gentlemen to the Indian’s camp, 
they being then dancing one of their lighter 
war dances. They performed it after 
this manner: Thirty or forty of the younger 
men formed themselves into a ring, 
a fire being lighted (notwithstanding the 
excessive heat) and burning clear in the 
midst of them. Near this sat three elderly 
Indians, who beat a drum to the time of the 
others’ danciDg, when the dancers hopped 
round the ring after a frantic fashion, not 
unlike the priests of Bacchus in old times, 
and repeated, sundry times, these sounds : 
“Yohoh!” “ Bugh !” Soon after this the 
major part of the dancers (or rather hop¬ 
pers) set up a horrid shriek or halloo ! 

They continued dancing and hopping, 
after this manner for several hours and 
! rested very seldom. Once whilst I ttaid 
with them they did seat themselves ; im¬ 
mediately thereupon the three old men 
began to sing an Indian soDg, the tune of 
which was not disagreable to the white 
by-standers. Upon this, the youDg war¬ 
riors renewed their terrible shriek and 
halloo, and formed themselves into a ring, 

; environing the three old ones, and danced 
as before. Mr. Calvert, myself, and some 
others slipped through the dancers and 
stood near the fire; and when the drum- 
betters ceased their noise, we shaked them 
by the hand. Here we presented some 
clean pipes to them, which were very 
acceptable, most of the Indians beiDg great 
smokers of tobacco A Conestogoe, or 


tory and Biography in 1877, but which ended 
rather abruptly at Philadelphia in June. 1741, 
prior to their reaching Lancaster. This jour¬ 
nal was carefully edited by R. Alonzo Brock, 
esq., of Richmond, Virginia, to whom I am in¬ 
debted for the sketches ot Gov. Lee and Col. 
Beverley, herewith appended. Mr. Black was 
a sue essful merchant, and resided on the 
James River, near Richmond. He probably 
died shortly after the close of the War tor In¬ 
dependence He married a Miss Dent, of 
Maryland, and has descendants yet living in 
the Old Dominion. 

iThese were the followers of John Conrad 
Beissel. In 1732 he and his disciples settled at 
Kjphrata, wherehouses werebuiltforthesociety 
‘•Kedar” for the Sisters, and then “Zion” for the 
Brethren, the latter having lived as eremites 
in huts until the completion of the monastery 
in 1738. These old time buildings still haunt 
the green meadow on the Coeallco like the 
spectres ot strange things that belonged to 
another age. Beissel’s followers were rigid 
ascetics abstaining from many of the common 
enjoyments and comforts of life, and re ena¬ 
bling in dress also some of the monastic orders 
of the old world. I he men were trousered, 
wore a tunic that reached to the feet, and an 
outer garment, furnished with apron and 
Capuchin cowl, and a veil that hung low 


down over the shoulders A girdle controlled 
this flowing attire. The females were similarly 
! habited. Both cultivated music, in which art 
Beissel was a proficient. Many of the sisters 
were engaged in illuminating manuscripts, 01 - 
in embroidering. At an early day tho society 
had a printing press, Lorn which issued a num¬ 
ber of remarksble works. Beis el died July 
6, 1768. aged sev nty-seven years His followers 
are extinct, Sister Barbara being the las , but 
the claimants to the lands are numerous. 

2 William Log in son of James Logan. Secre¬ 
tary ot the Province ot Pennsylvania, was 
born 14th 5 mo . 1718. He was educated in 
England, and on his return, assisted his tath-r 
in his business affairs, and was engaged in 
mer a-tile life upiothe decease of his fat her 
on the 31st of neeember, 1751. He was a metn- 
bi r ot the Philadelphia City Council from 1743 
up to 1776, and in 1747 was made a member of 
th Px-ovinctal Council in place of his father. 
He was a prominent Quaker, and as a matter 
ot course, was influential in the political affairs 
of the Province He died at Stenton, near 
Philadelphia, on the 28th ot October. 1776 and 
was buried n Friends’ ground Mr. Logan 
married Hannah a mien, daughter of George 
Emlen, of Philadelphia who died January so, 
1777, aged neatly 55 years. They had six 
children. 
























































































































































































































15 


Ireaty at Lancaster , 17JA. 


Susquehannock Iudian, 1 stood without 
the circle and importuned the white by¬ 
standers to give money to the young 
children, which was done. Whilst this 
diversion happened some high Dutch, be¬ 
longing to the town, brought their guns 
with them to the camp, which, being 
perceived by the Conestoga, he informed us 
it would be very displeasing to the Indians, 
who would resent it, though brought 
thither with ever so innocent an intent; 
therefore desired us to tell the Germans to 
withdraw, and leave their musquets out 
of their sight, otherwise some bad conse¬ 
quences might ensue. We complied with 
his request, and made the Germans retire. 

From the camp I went to Worrall’s, and 
set up until eleven o’clock, to whose house 
I heard the Indian drum, and the warriors 
repeating their terrible noise and dancing, 
and at this sport of theirs they continued 
till near one in the morning. 

These young men are surprisingly agile, 
strong and straight-limbed. They shoot, 
both with the gun and bow and arrow, 
most dextrously. They likewise throw 
their tomahawk (a little hatchet) with 
great certainty, at an indifferent large ob¬ 
ject for twenty or thirty yards distance. 
This weapon they use against their ene¬ 
mies, when they have spent their powder 
and ball, and destroy many of them with it. 

The chiefs who were deputed to treat 
with the English by their different nations 
were very sober men, which is rare 
for an Indian to be so, if he 
can get liquor. They behaved very 
well during our stay amongst them, and 

r The Conestoga or Susquehannock Indian, 
who thus made himself especially officious, was 
in keeping with the general characteristics of 
that band of vagabond Indians. That they 
were the remnants of the original Susquehan- 
nas is not true, as we have always averred By 
reference to the name - of the Indians pr. sent 
at this treaty, as given by Conrad Weiser. a'd 
published in the Pennsylvania Archives first 
series, Vol. I, pp. 656, B57, it will be seen that 
they were Oneida speaking Indians. This is 
true. Again, Quaker pamphleteers have uni¬ 
formly asse ted that the so-called Conestoga 
Indians, despatched by the Paxtang Boys in 
1763. had always been seated on the Manor land. 
Where were those ‘-old boys” when the treaty 
of 1744 took place? They were too near the 
least to be absent on this occasion. The facts 
are, those present at the treaty at the end of 
twenty years had gone to other, or the happy 
hunting grounds,while the worthless, murder¬ 
ous savages whom the Paxtang Boys rid the 
community of were vagabonds of a later ar¬ 
rival ; and these are points well worthy of con¬ 
sideration Being of Swiss and German de¬ 
scent, neither Scotch-Trish, or a Presbyterian, 
we have not b en unduly biased, but justice 
to the early fro tiersme» who made the wil¬ 
derness of of Pennsylvania “ to blossom as the 
rose,” has dtmandedour advocacy of the right. 


suudry times refused drinking in a moder¬ 
ate way. Whenever they renew old trea¬ 
ties of friendship or make any bargain about 
lands they sell to the English, they take 
reat care to abstain from intoxicating 
rink for fear of being over-reached ; but 
when they have finished this business then 
some of them will drink without measure. 

Sunday, June 24, 1744. 

Mr. Commissioner Jennings ordered me 
to copy the speech to be read by him, in 
the name of the Governor of Maryland, to 
the Indians in the Court House, to-morrow 
evening. This, and transcribing some 
copies of it, busied me 60 much that I 
could not go to the Court House, where 
divine service, according to the Church of 
England, was performed by my fellow- 
traveller, the Rev. Mr. Craddock, to a 
numerous audience this day. He also 
preached a very good sermon, which met 
the approbation of the several gentlemen 
present. 

His Honour, the Governor, invited Mr. 
Craddock to dine with him, which he did, 
and received a hearty welcome. 

Betwixt 1 and 2, our honourable com¬ 
missioners and those of Virginia dined in 
the Court House, and the gentlemen of 
both their governments ; after which the 
office of the day was again performed by 
another minister of the established church. 
He gave us an excellent sermon, and ex¬ 
patiated very feelingly on the too prevalent 
vices of the day. He used plain language, 
and thereby fitted his discourse for all capa¬ 
cities, by which all might truly edify, if they 
had any grace or good disposition thereto. 

In the evening, walked to the Indian 
camp, where they were dancing in the 
manner described last night, only the num¬ 
ber of dancers was augmented, they having 
taken in several small boys, to make a 
larger ring. 

Betwixt 8 and 9 this night supped with 
my brother Secretary, Mr. Black, in his 
lodgings at Mr. George Sanderson’s. We 
had pleasant company, good wine, and 
lime-punch. From hence I went to Wor¬ 
rall’s. where, in my room, three very impu¬ 
dent Indian traders had taken possession 
of my bed, and caused another to be there 
made; but after some disputes, our land¬ 
lord made these scoundrels quit their beds 
and leave the parson and myself in quiet 
possession. 

These traders, for the most part, are as 
wild as some of the most savage Indians, 
amongst whom th y trade for skins, furs, 
&c., for sundry kinds of European goods 
and strong liquors. They go back in the 






If) 


Mar she's Journal. 


country, above 300 miles from the white 
inhabitants ; here they live with the Indian 
hunters until they have disposed of their 
cargoes, and these ass-horses carry their 
skins, &c., to Philadelphia where they 
are bought by the merchants there, and 
from thence exported to London It is a 
very beneficial trade, though hazardous to 
their persons and lives, for the weather is 
so excessively cold where they trade, which 
is near the lakes of Canada, and their 
cabins so poorly made to defend them¬ 
selves from the bitter winters, that they 
often perish, and, on the other hand, they 
are liable to the insults and savage fury of 
the drunken Indians by selling to them 
rum and other spirituous liquors. The gov¬ 
ernment, as yet, has not provided a law 
prohibiting the selling of 6uch liquors, 
although it has been pressed by his Hon¬ 
our, who is but too sensible of the ill 
effects produced by the Indian traders car¬ 
rying so much to barter with the hunters 
of the Six Nations. 

I rested well, after dispossessing these 
intruding guests, but this happened by my 
giving orders to my landlord’s servants, 
this morning, to wash our room with cold 
water, and take my bed from its bedstead, 
and lay it on the floor; and by this means the 
bugs and fleas were defeated of their prey. 

Monday Morning, 25th June, 1744. 

At 10 o’clock the Indian sachems met 
the Governor, the honourable Commis¬ 
sioners of Virginia, and those of this 
province [Maryland], when his Honour 
made them a speech, to which Cannasa- 
teego returned an answer in behalf of all 
the others present 

The Indians staid in the Court House 
about two hours, and were regaled with 
some bumbo and sangree. 

The honourable Commissioners from 
Virginia and Maryland dined in the Court 
House, as did the gentlemen of both gov¬ 
ernments ; we had two tables, and a great 
variety of victuals; our company being 
about thirty in number. 

In the Court House, Monday, p. m. 

The Governor and all the honourable 
Commissioners resumed their several seats 
here, and then the chiefs came in and took 
their places. 

Edmund Jennings, esq., as first Com¬ 
missioner for Maryland, made a speech to 
the Six Nations which was interpreted to 
them by Mr. Weiser. Whilst Mr. Jen¬ 
nings delivered his speech, he gave the 
interpreter a string and two belts of wam¬ 


pum, 1 which were by him presented to the 
sachem Cannasateego ; 2 and the Indians 
thereupon gave the cry of approbation ; 
by this we were sure the speech was well 
approved by the Indians. This cry is 
usually made on presenting wampum to 
the Indians in a treaty, and is performed 
thus : The grand chief and speaker amongst 
them pronounces the word jo hah! with a 
loud voice singly; then all the others 
join in this sound, woh! dwelling some lit¬ 
tle while upon it, and keeping exact time 
with each other, and immediately, with a 
sharp noise and force, utter this sound, 
wugh! This is performed in great order, 
and with the utmost ceremony and deco¬ 
rum, and with the Indians is like our Eng¬ 
lish huzza ! 

Monday Evening, In the Court House Cham¬ 
ber. 

I supped with the Governor, the honour¬ 
able Commissioners, and the gentlemen of 
Philadelphia, who attended his Honour to 
this town. We had an elegant entertain¬ 
ment, and after supper the Governor was 
extremely merry, and thereby set an ex¬ 
ample of agreeable mirth, which ran 
through the whole company. During this 
merriment t woGermans happened to pass by 
the Court House with a harp and fiddle, and 


1 Wampum is an Iroquois word, and means 
mussie The wampum of the Aborigines was 
composed ol beads made irom the mnssle 
which was found on the coast of Virginia and 
Maryland, and in some oi the rivers, especially 
the Susquehanna. Wood was also employed. 
A number of beads strung toge'her was called 
a siring , which, when a tatbom long, was term¬ 
ed a fathom of wampum, several strings 
united were designated as a belt of wampum. 
The belts were of different dimensions as to 
the length and breadth, and of different colors, 
white and black wampum being the kinds 
used. White wampum denoted peace, good¬ 
will. &c , while the black was the revrrse. 
Upon the delivery of a string, a long speech 
was generally ma >e, but when a b-lt was given 
lew words were spoken. Upon the advent of 
the Europeans, beads neatly and elegantly 
made wer - used in barter with the Indians, 
when the latter gave up the use of those made 
of mnssle and wo: a For further reference 
see Loskiel, pp. 25-7; Heckewetder (Ed. 1876), 
p. 109; and lor engravingof a beltol wampum, 
Memoirs ot the Historical Society of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, Vol. 1 1, p. 205. 

2 Canassatego—1 his name is ariously writ¬ 
ten, as most Indian proper names are no two 
of our early w riters giving us ih« same ortho¬ 
graphy. ( anassatego was. a renowned, saga¬ 
cious and influential chief of the Six -ations. 
He was an Onondaga, am .n ol note in his own 
nation, whose name figur. s largely in all the 
principal transactions ot the Iroquois from 
1734 to 1750 . Hedied at Onondaga in the month 
of September. 1750, and his death w is great y 
deplored by the Oovernments of New York 
and Pennsylvania, his Influence with thesis 
Nations being very great and always on the 
side of the Engli.-h. 


















17 


Treaty at Lancaster , 


played some tunes under the window of 
our room : upon that they were ordered to 
come up stairs, where the Governor re¬ 
quired them to divert us, which they did, 
but not with the harmony of their music 
(for that was very uncouth and displeasing 
to us who had heard some of the best bands 
in England,) but by playing a tune, of 
some sort, to a young Indian, who danced 
a jig with Mr. Andrew Hamilton, 1 in a 
most surprising manner. At nine o’clock 
the Governor and Commissioners left us ; 
and then the younger persons raised their 
jollity by dancing in the Indian dress, and 
after their manner. 

Tuesday, 26th of June. 

Copied fair the proceedings of yesterday 
with the Indians, as also Gov. Thomas’s 
speech to them, which were transmitted to 
his Excellency, Thomas Bladen, esq., 
Governor of Maryland, by Mr. Commis¬ 
sioner Jenings. 

We dined in the court house, and soon 
after I received orders from the above 
Commissioner to acquaint all the Mary¬ 
land gentlemen, “That they should desist 
going into the court house this afternoon, 
during our treaty with the Six Nations.” 
Pursuant to which order, I informed the 
gentlemen of our Commissioner’s pleasure, 
at which they first were much disgusted, 
as were the Virginia gentlemen, who had 
the same commands laid on them by the 
Secretary of their Commissioners. 

Five O’clock P. M. 

His Honour, the Governor of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, and the honourable Commissioners 
of Virginia and Maryland, met the Indian 
chiefs in the court house, when Cannas- 
ateego answered our speech of yesterday, 
and presented a string and two belts of 
wampum, which beiDg done, the further 
execution of the treaty was adjourned until 
the next day. 

By order of our Commissioners and at 
the request of Mr. Weiser, the interpreter, 
I bought half a gross of tobacco pipes, to 
be presented to the Indians at their camp ; 
which was accordingly done, and they 
seemed well pleased at the gift, such pipes 
being scarce with them. 

i This Andrew Hamilton wasasonot Andrew 
Hamilton, the celebrated lawyer and eminent 
Councillor of Pennsylvania, who died in 1741. 
The son was a native of the Province, was 
Town Clerk ot Philadelphia and held several 
other offices. He was engaged during xbe 
greater portion ot bis life in the shipping 
business. He died at Philadelphia in Septem¬ 
ber, 1747, comparatively a young man. Mr. 
Hamilton married, in 1741, Mary, daughter of 
William 'I ill, of the City, and left two so s. 


Wednesday, 27th June. 

After breakfast, viewed Mr. Worrall’s 
book of our expenses, which we settled ; 
and the whole amount thereof, from the 
20th instant to this day, was £40-0-5, Penn¬ 
sylvania currency. 

” N. B.—Mr. Worrall’s account for the ne¬ 
groes’ expenses was not included in the 
above sum. 

This day our Commissioners wrote a 
letter to our Governor, giving him an ac¬ 
count of their transactions with the Indians, 
which I fairly copied by their order. 

6 O’clock p. m. 

The Governor and all the Honourable 
j Gommissioners again met and treated with 
the Six Nations, in the Court House, when 
Tachanuntie, the famous Black Prince, 
(mentioned before) answered the speech 
made yesterday by the Hon. Col. Lee, one 
of the Virginia Commissioners; and in 
j token that it was well received and ap- 
j proved by the chiefs. Tachanuntie presented 
one string and two belts of wampum to his 
Majesty’s Commissioners of Virginia. 
Then Mr. Commissioner Jennings desired 
the interpreter to ask the Indians if they 
would be ready for a conference to-morrow 
morning, in the Court House chamber, 
with the Commissioners of Maryland, 
which he did, and the Indians answered 
that they would meet for that purpose, as 
desired. 

At eight o’clock, this evening, I went 
i with three of our honourable Commis- 
j sioners to a ball in the Court House 
chamber, to which his Honour, the Gover¬ 
nor of Pennsylvania, the Commissioners of 
Virginia and Maryland, and the gentlemen 
of the several colonies, with sundry in- 
i habitants of this town, were invited. 

James Hamilton, esq., 1 the proprietor of 
j Lancaster, made the ball, and opened it 
; by dancing two minuets with two of the 
ladies here, which last danced wilder time 
than any Indians. 

Our music and musicians were the same 
as described last Monday evening. 

The females (I dare not call them ladies, 
for that would be a profanation of the 
name,) were, in general, very disagreeable. 
The dancers consisted of Germans and 
[Scotch]-Irish ; but there were some 
Jewesses who had not long since come from 

x Of James Hamilton, the proprietor of Lan- 
c« er, we have little infortnation. He was 
considered as a natural son ot Andrew Hamil¬ 
ton. of Philadelphia,and died duiing xhe Kevo- 
'ntionary ei-a, leaving no direct descendants. 
Hi-* e-tate went to the Hamiltons, of Philadel¬ 
phia, the heirs of whom are recipients ot the 
,. uit-rents It fs a great pity that these were 
not abrogated long ago. 








18 


Mo rah c ’« Journal. 


New York, 1 that made a tolerable appear¬ 
ance, beiDg well dressed, and of an agree¬ 
able behaviour. 

There was a large and elegant supper 
prepared in the Court House chamber, of 
which the Governor, some of the honour¬ 
able Commissioners, and the female 
dancers first eat, then the other gentlemen 
in order, and afterwards the younger gen¬ 
tlemen. The dances were concluded about 
12 o’clock ; but myself, with several others 
of the younger sort, staid until after one in 
the morning. 

Thursday, 28th of June, 1744, a. m. 

At 9 this morning the Commissioners of 
Maryland and the Six Nations met in the 
court house chamber according to agree¬ 
ment of yesterday. 

Here we opened the several bales and 
boxes of goods to be presented the Indians, 
they having been bought at Philadelphia 
and sent hither for that end. 

Before the chiefs viewed and handled 
the several goods, Mr. Commissioner Jen- 
ings made them a speech in the name of the 
Governor of Maryland, with which, after 
it was interpreted to them by Mr. Weiser, 
they seemed well pleased. 

The chiefs turned over, and narrowly in¬ 
spected the goods, and asked the prices of 
them, which being told them, they seemed 
somewhat dissatisfied, and desired to go 
down into the Court House to consult 
among themselves, (which is their usual 
method, if it concerns any matter of im¬ 
portance, as this was, for they must give a 
particular account of their whole negotia¬ 
tion to their several tribes, when they re¬ 
turn,) with their interpreter. They did so; 
and after some time came up again, and 
agreed with our Commissioners to release 
their claim and right to any lands now held 
by the inhabitants of Maryland, aud for 
which the said Indians were not heretofore 
satisfied, in consideration of the following 
goods: 

4 pieces of strouds, 2 at £7.£28 0 0 

1 At this period, the frontier Indian trade 
was c&iefly in the hands of Jews, and Lancas¬ 
ter being a frontier town, evidently offered 
advantages to the Israelites. T is probably 
ac o >nts for the number of that race in 1744— 
chief among whom was Joseph Simon, more 
or less noted in the India trade, and whose 
remains lie interred in the burial ground of 
the Society of the Jews at Lancaster. 

2 These articles entered into the lists of all 
presents made to the Indians. They were 
coarse fabrics. “ Match-coat ” was a coat made 
of ma^ch-cloth “Stroud,” a coarse blanket. 
“ Dussel,” a coarse woolen cloth, having a thick 
nap. Such aie the definitions given in our 
dictionaries, but they are not sufficiently de¬ 
scriptive. 


2 pieces ditto, £5. 10 0 0 

200 shirts. 68 12 0 

3 pieces half thicks. 11 0 0 

3 ditto dussle blankets, at £7. 21 0 0 

1 ditto ditto. 6 10 0 

47 guns, at £1 6 0. 61 2 0 

1 fib vermilion. 0 18 0 

1000 flints. 0 18 0 

4 doz. jews-harps. 0 14 0 

2 doz. boxes.. 0 10 

1 cwt. 2 qrs. 0 lb. bar lead. 3 0 0 

2 qrs. shot. 1 0 0 

2 half barrels gun-powder. 13 0 0 

Pennsylvania money.£220 15 0 


The above quantity of goods were ac¬ 
cordingly given the Indians, as agreed on 
by both parties; after which, our Com¬ 
missioners ordered me to go to Mr. Wor- 
rall, and desire him to send some punch for 
the Sachems, which was accordingly done; 
and after they had severally drank health 
to the Commissioners, and the compliment 
returned by the latter, the Indians retired 
to their wigwams, aud the honourable Com¬ 
missioners went to their lodgings about 
12 o’clock. 

Post Meridian. 

The Commissioners of Virginia had a 
private treaty with the chiefs, in the court 
house, when Col. Lee made them a speech, 
which see in the printed treaty, fol. 20, 21, 
22 . 

In the evening about 7 o’clock I accom¬ 
panied my friend, Col. Nathan Rigbie, to 
the Indian cabins, when, having collected 
several of their papooses (or little children) 
together, he flung a handful of English 
half-pennies amongst them, for which they 
scrambled heartily, and with the utmost 
earnestness. This pleased the elder sort 
very much, and they esteem it a great 
mark of friendship if the white people make 
presents to their children, or treat them 
with any particular notice. I gave the 
papooses some small beads, which were 
kindly received. The young men, this 
night, again danced a war dance, as de¬ 
scribed on Saturday last, at which were 
present a great number of white people. 

When the Colonel and myself had taken 
a view of the Onondagoes’, Cayugas’ and 
Senecas’ cabins, he went from me to the 
ring of dancers, and then I went to a cabin, 
where I heard the celebrated Mrs. Mon¬ 
tour, 1 a French lady (but now, by having 
lived so long among the Six Nations, is be¬ 
come almost an Indian) bad her residence. 
When I approached the wigwam, I saluted 


iSee Appendix for sketch of the Montours. 
























10 


Treaty at Lancaster , 


her in French, and asked her whether she 
was not born in Canada? of what parents? 
and whether she had not lived a long time 
with the Indians? She answered me in the 
same language very civilly, and after some 
compliments were passed betwixt us told 
me in a polite manner “that she was born 
in Canada, whereof her father (who was a 
French gentleman) had been Governor- 
under whose administTSthm the then Five 
Nations of Indians had made war against 
the French, and the Hurons and that gov¬ 
ernment (whom we term the French 
Indians, from espousing their part against 
the English, and living in Canada) and 
that, in the war, she was taken by some 
of the Five Nations’ warriors, being then 
about ten years of age, and by them was 
carried away into their country, where 
she was habited and brought up in 
the same manner as their children. 
That when she grew up to years 
of maturity, she was married to a 
famous war captain of those nations, 
who was in great esteem for the 
glory he procured in the wars he carried 
on against the Catawbas, a great nation of 
Indians to the southwest of Virginia, by 
whom she had several children ; but about 
fifteen years ago he was killed in a battle 
with them, since which she has not been 
married. That she had little or no re¬ 
membrance of the place of her birth, nor, 
indeed, of her parents, it being near fifty 
years since she was ravished from them by 
the Indians.” 

She has been a handsome woman, gen¬ 
teel and of polite address, notwithstanding 
her residence has been so long among the 
Indians, though formerly she was wont to 
accompany the several chiefs, w ho used to re¬ 
new treaties of friendship with the proprietor 
and governor of Pennsylvania, at Philadel¬ 
phia, the metropolis of that province ; and 
being a white woman, was there very 
much caressed by the gentle women of 
that city, with whom she used to stay for 
some time. She retains her native language 
by conversing with the Frenchmen who 
trade for fur skins, &c., among the Six 
Nations ; and our language she learned at 
Philadelphia, as likewise of our traders, 
who go back into the Indians’ country. In 
her cabin were two of her daughters, by 
the war-captain, who were both married 
to persons of the same station, and 
were then gone to war with the Ca¬ 
tawbas before mentioned. One of these 
young women had a son, about five years 
old, who, I think was one of the finest- 
fehtured and limbed children mine eyes 
ever saw, and was not so tawny or greased 


as the other Indian children were, but on 
the contrary, his cheeks were ruddy, mixed 
with a delicate white, had eyes and hair of 
an hazel colour, and was neatly dressed in 
a green ban-jan, and his other garments 
were suitable. 

Madame Montour has but one son, who 
for his prowess and martial exploits was 
lately made a captain, and a member of 
the Indian council, and is now gone to war 
against the Catawbas, with her sons-in-law. 

She is in great esteem with the best sort 
of white people, and by them always 
treated with abundance of civility; and 
whenever she went to Philadelphia, (which 
formerly she did pretty often), the ladies 
of that city always invited her to their 
houses, entertained her well, and made her 
several presents. 

From this cabin, when I had taken leave 
of Mrs. Montour and her daughters, I re¬ 
turned to the dancers, who were continu¬ 
ing their mirth; and afterwards returned 
to my lodgings. 

Friday, June 29th, 1474, A. M. 

Our Commissioners and the Six Nations 
had a private conference in the Court 
House chamber, when they jointly pro¬ 
ceeded to settle the bounds and quan¬ 
tity of land the latter were to re¬ 
lease to Lord Baltimore, in Mary¬ 
land. But the Indians, not very well 
apprehending our Commissioners, in 
their demand respecting the bounds of the 
lands to be released, occasioned a great 
delay in the finishing of that business ; 
however, it was wholly settled in the 
afternoon, upon Mr. Weiser’s confer¬ 
ence with the Governor of Penn¬ 
sylvania, his majesty’s commissioners 
of Virginia, and those of Maryland, and 
also with the Indians in council, where he 
debated the matter more fully, and ex¬ 
plained our commissioners’ demands 
in so clear a manner, that they came to 
such an amicable determination, as proved 
agreeable to each party. We again present¬ 
ed the sachems, here, with bumbo 1 punch 
with which they drank prosperity and suc¬ 
cess to their Father, the great King over 
the waters, and to the healths of our com¬ 
missioners. 

Th s day we dined at our landlord Wor- 
rall’s, and it was agreed by the Commis¬ 
sioners of Maryland to invite all the Six 
Nations’ chiefs to dine with them in com¬ 
pany with the Governor and Virginia Com¬ 
missioners to-morrow in the court bouse ; 

i“Bumbo” is an old drink. Ttwasamixtu o 
of rum and water “Sangree,” or “Sangaree,” 
is composed oi wine and water spiced. 








20 


Marshe's Journal. 


against which time and orders were given 
to prepare a large and elegant entertain¬ 
ment. 

In the evening I went with Col. Rigbie, 
and other gentlemen, to visit one Mr. 
Adams, a German doctor, who, we 
understood, had got an organ; but 
it was with the greatest importunity 
he would favour us in playing a tune, 
telling us, that unless he himself was pos¬ 
sessed with a strong desire to play, he could 
oblige nobody; yet, seeing we were so 
very importunate, he at last complied, 
and strummed over three or four High- 
Dutch psalm tunes, to which he sang the 
words, in the most enthusiastic raptures. 
For my part, what with the horrid noise 
he made on the organ, and his horse-voice, 
I never suffered so great an anticipation of 
pleasure in hearing music, or, at least, a 
musical instrument, in my whole life. 
When he had finished his rapturous fit of 
noise he acquainted us that he had been a 
consummate rake in his more youthful 
days, but soon after he married turned 
himself to a sober and religious life, and 
praised his Maker several hours a day, by 
playing on and singing to his organ. He 
seemed to us to be a perfect enthusiast, 
and upon inquiry among his neighbors he 
has borne that character ever since he took 
to himself a wife. Being very much tired 
with his cant and noise, we last took our 
leaves of him, though not before inviting 
him to drink a glass of wine with us at our 
lodgings; but he desired to be excused 
accepting our invitation, at which we were 
not displeased, since we might have ex¬ 
pected his visit would have proved very 
troublesome. 

Saturday, 30th June, 1744, A. M. 

Mr. Commissioner Jqpings having this 
morning drawn a deed of value from the 
chiefs of the Six Nations for the landsthey 
claim in Maryland, to the use of Lord Bal¬ 
timore, sent for me to engross it, which I 
so did, about nine o’clock. 

At ten, his majesty’s commissioners had 
a conference with the Indians in the court¬ 
house chamber, to which no other persons 
than themselves were admitted. 

One O’clock P. M. 

The twenty-four chiefs of the Six Na¬ 
tions, by invitation of yesterday from the 
honorable Commissioners of Maryland, 
dined with them in the court houss; when 
were present, at other table, his Honour, 
the Governor of Pennsvl vania. the honoura¬ 
ble commissioners of Virginia, and a great 
many gentlemen of two or three colonies. 


There were a large number of inhabitants 
of Lancaster likewise present to see the In¬ 
dians dine. 

We had five tables, great variety of 
di3hes, and served up in very good order. 
The sachems sat at two separate tables ; 
at the head of one, the famous orator, Can- 
asateego, sat, and the others were placed 
according to their rank. As the Indians 
are not accustomed to eat in the same man¬ 
ner as the English, or other polite nations 
do, we who were secretaries on this affair, 
with Mr. Thomas CooksoD, prothonotary 
of Lancaster county, William Logan, esq., 
son of Mr. President Logan, and Mr. Na¬ 
thaniel Rigbie, of Baltimore county, in 
Maryland, carved the meat for them, 
served them with cider and wine, mixed 
with water, and regulated the economy of 
the .two tables. The chiefs seemed pro¬ 
digiously pleased with their feast, for they 
fed lustily, drank heartily, and were very 
greasy before they finished their dinner, 
for, by-the-bye, they make no use of their 
forks. 

The interpreter, Mr. Weiser, stood be¬ 
twixt the tables, where the Governor sat, 
and c/hat, at which the sachems were 
placed, who, by order of his Honour, was 
desired to inform the Indians he drank 
their healths, which he did ; whereupon 
they gave the usual cry of approbation, 
and returned the compliment by drinking 
health to his Honour and the several Com¬ 
missioners. 

After dinner, the interpreter informed 
the Governor and Commissioners, “That 
as the Lord Proprietary and Governor of 
Maryland was not known to the Indians 
by any particular name, they had agreed, 
in council, to take the first op¬ 
portunity of a large company to 
present him with one. And, as this with 
them was a matter of great consequence, 
and attended with abundance of form, the 
several nations had drawn lots for the per¬ 
formance of tbe ceremony, and the lot 
falling on the Cahuga nation, they had 
chosen GachradodoD, one of their chiefs, to 
be their speaker, and he desired leave to 
begin,” which being given, he, on an ele¬ 
vated part of the Court House, with all the 
dignity of a warrior; the gesture of an 
orator, and in a very graceful posture, spoke 
as follows: 

“ As the Governor of Maryland has in¬ 
vited us here, to treat about our lands, and 
brighten the chain of friendship, the united 
Six Nations think themselves so much 
obliged to him that we have come to a 
resolution in council, to give the great man, 
who is proprietor of Maryland, a particu- 













21 


Treaty at Lancaster , 17 


lar name, by which we may hereafter cor¬ 
respond with trim. And as it hath fallen 
to the Cahugaes’ lot in council to consider 
of a proper name for that chief man, we 
have agreed to give him the name of 
Tocary-ho-gon, denoting Precedency, Ex¬ 
cellency, or living in the middle or honour¬ 
able place, betwixt Asserigoa and our 
brother Onas, by whom our treaties may 
be the better carried on.” 

And then, addressing himself to his 
Honour the Governor of Pennsylvania, the 
honourable the Commissioners of Virginia 
and Maryland, and to the gentlemen then 
present, he added : 

“As there is a company of great men 
now assembled, we take this opportunity 
to publish this matter, that it may be known 
Tocary-ho gon is our friend, and that we are 
ready to honour him, and that by such 
name he may be always called and known 
among us; and, we hope he will ever act 
towards us, according to the excellence of 
the name we have now given him, and 
enjoy a long and happy life.” 

When the speech was ended all the other 
chiefs expressed their assent, and great 
satisfaction at what was said to our Com¬ 
missioners, insomuch that they sent forth 
five several cries of approbation. 

Gachradodon having finished his com¬ 
plimentary oration, Mr. Commissioner Jen- 
iDgs, in the name of the other Commission¬ 
ers, and on behalf of Lord Baltimore, spoke 
in reply to the sachem : “That his Lord- 
ship was much obliged to the Six Nations 
for distinguishing him by the name of 
Tocary-ho-gon, esteeming it a mark of kind¬ 
ness and honour. That his Lordship would 
entertain the most unfeigned friendship for 
them, and that the government of Maryland 
would ever be ready and desirous to 
render them its best offices, conducive to 
their tranquility and undisturbed safety ;” 
which Mr. Weiser, by command, inter¬ 
preted to the Indians, and at the 
some time was ordered to acquaint them, 
that the Governor and the Commissioners 
were then preparing to drink his Majesty’s 
heal th ; all which was done, and the chiefs 
expressed a sincere joy by their cry of ap¬ 
probation, and drank the same in bum¬ 
pers of Madeira wine. The Governor, 
Commissioners, and indeed all the persons 
present, except the Indians, gave three sev¬ 
eral huzzas, after the English manner, on 
dx-inking the King’s health ; which a good 
deal surprised them, they having never be¬ 
fore heard the like noise. 

Upon ending the ceremony of drinking 
healths, the Governor and Commissioners 
retired some little time ; but within an hour 


the Commissioners of Virginia and Mary¬ 
land entered the court bouse, and afterwards 
went up into the chamber, as likewise the 
several chiefs, Mr. Weiser, and a great 
many of the young gentlemen. Here, by 
order of our Commissioners, I produced the 
engrossed release for the lands, with the 
seals fixed. We were obliged to put about 
the glass pretty briskly, and then Mr. 
Weiser interpreted the contents of it to the 
sachems, who, conferring amoDgst them¬ 
selves about the execution of it, the major 
part of them seemed very inclinable to sign 
and deliver it, but upon Shukelemy 1 , an 

i Shikellimy, or Swatane, Chief ol the Oneida 
tribe, in 1728, was the acting representative of 
the Six Nations in business affairs with the 
Proprietary Government, his fixed residence 
being in the old Muncy Town in Buffalo Val¬ 
ley Notwithstanding the statement in the in¬ 
troduction to thi* journal that he was of Sus- 
quehannock origin,such was not the case, bit as 
here give.). He was placed over the Shawanese 
as Viceroy or Vice-Regent. On account of his 
great influence he thus wielded, he was in re¬ 
markable favor with the English. There was 
scarcely a treaty between 1728 ana 1748 at which 
he was not present. At the Lancaster tre ty, 
on account of the superiority of rank of Can- 
assatego and others, he was not heard from, 
tave in his refusal at first to sign the treaty 
with the Maryland Commissioners. It was 
probably due to the influence of the Penn gov¬ 
ernment, who objected to the bounds as com¬ 
ing in conflict with the claims of Pennsylva¬ 
nia—and which, although Mr. Marsho makes 
no mention of it, was subsequently changed to 
suit the notions of Shikellimy. Shikellimy 
afterwards removed to Shamokin, how Sun- 
bury, as it was a more convenient point for in¬ 
tercourse with the Proprietary Governors. 
Conrad Weiser, in his report to the authorities, 
states: “ On the 6th of October. 1747. I set o t 
for Shamokin by the way ot Paxtang. because 
tbe weather was bad. 1 arrived at Shamokin 
on the 9th about noon. I was surprised to see 
Shik llimy in such a mi,cable condition as 
ever my eyes beheld; he was hardly able to 
stretch out his hand to bid me welcome: in the 
same condition was his wifhis three sons 
not quite so bad, also, one ot his daughters and 
two or three of his grand-children ; all had the 
fever; there were three buried out ot the fam¬ 
ily in a few days before, viz: Csjadies, Shikel- 
limv’s son-in-law, that had been married to 
his daughter above fifteen years, and reckoned 
the best hunter among all the Indians; also, 
his oldest wife’s son, and his grand-child. Next 
morning, I administered the medicines lo 
Shikellimy and one of his sons, under the d - 
rection ot Doctor Graeme, which had a very 
good effect upon b th. Shikellimy was abl j > 
to walk about with me with a stick in his 
hand before I left Shamokin, which was on 
the 12t,h in the afternoon.” But poor Shik 1- 
limy did not survive many days longer. He 
died »t Sbamoki ■. December 17, 1748, in the 
presence of a daughter and ot the missionary, 
David Zeisberger, who had a tended him in 
his illness. Several data after his deceas) his 
second son, Logan, returned home from a far- 
off journey to w eep over the iteless oody of 
the paivnt he so much es eemed. The Mora¬ 
vian brethren made him a coffin, and the In¬ 
dians, having painted the corpse in gay colors 
and decked it with the choicest ornaments 







22 


Mar she's Journal. 


Oneydoe chief’s remonstrance, some of 
the others, with himself, refused, for 
that day, executing it; which re¬ 
fusal of Shukelemy, we imputed, and 
that not without reason, to some sinister 
and under-hand means, made use of by 
Pennsylvania to induce the sachems not 
to give up their right to the lands by deed, 
without having a larger consideration given 
them by the province of Maryland than 
what was specified in the release. Shu¬ 
kelemy, who before we had esteemed one 
of our fastest friends, put us under a deep 
surprise and confusion, by his unfair be¬ 
haviour ; yet we, in some measure, extri¬ 
cated ourselves out of them, by the honest 
Cannasateego’s, and the other sachems, to 
the number of sixteen, delivering the 
deed after the forms customary with 
the English, to which there were a 
great many gentlemen signed their 
names as witnesses. Mr. Weiser as¬ 
sured the Commissioners that he, with 
Cannassateego and some other chiefs, would 
so effectually represent the unfair dealing 
of Skukelemy and his partisans in council 
that he did not doubt to induce him and 
them totally to finish this business on 
Monday next, maugre all the insinuations 
and misrepresentations agitated by the 
enemies of Maryland, and, indeed, Mr. In¬ 
terpreter proved successful, as is evident 
in the transactions of Monday, and may bo 
seen in the printed treaty. 


j not signed the deed of release, and renunci¬ 
ation of their claim to lands in Maryland, 

! did now cheerfully and without any 
hesitation execute the same, in the pre¬ 
sence of the commissioners and Mr. 
Weiser ; which latter they caused to sign 
and deliver it on behalf of a nation not 
present, both with his Indian name Of 
j TarraChiawagon, and that of Weiser. Thus 
we happily effected the purchase of the 
lands in Maryland, by the dexterous 
■ management of the interpreter, not- 
I withstanding the storm of' Satur¬ 
day, that threatened to blast our 
measure, and thereby gained not only 
some hundred thousand acres of land to 
Lord Baltimore, who had no good 
right to them before this release, 
but an undisturbed and quiet enjoyment 
of them to the several possessors, who, 
in face, had bought of that Lord’s agent. 

The names of the chiefs who signed and 
delivered the deed were— 


Cannasatekgo, 

Taoanoontia, 

JOHNUHAT, 

Caxhayion, 

TORUl'H PAPON, 
Netokanyhak, 
Rotierawuohto, 


Sachems 
or the 
Onondago 
N atlon. 


Paguohbonyunt, 

Gachrapodon. 

H UTAS ALYAKON, 
ROWANHOHISO, 
OSOCHQUAH, 
fcEYENTIES, 


Sachems 
of the 
Cahugaes. 


Monday, July the 2d, 1744, A. M. 

The honourable commissioners of Mary¬ 
land, with Mr. Weiser, met at the house 
of George Sanderson, * 1 in this town, 
where the several chiefs, who had 


carried the remains of their honored chiefiain 
to the burial place of his fathers on the banks 
of the “ Winding River.” -hike limy was suc¬ 
ceeded in the vice-gerency by his eldest son, 
Tachnachdoarus, alias J ohn Sbikellimy. His se¬ 
cond son was Jas. Logan, named for Secretary 

1 ogan, and was lame. The youngest son was 
John Petty,named for an Indian tradex - . Los- 
kiel has preserved us someimportant facts con¬ 
cerning tte old chief, who had b-come a con¬ 
vert to the Mox-avian faith. Shikellimy’s son 
Logan, or Tah-gah-jute, is the Indian celebra¬ 
ted in the annals of border warfare by being 
the reported author of a sensational speech de- 
tailing his wrongs, and which for years was the 
“ stock in trade” of every school-boy orator in 
the land. 

i Geoi'ge Sanderson, who kept the inn refer¬ 
red to. and the first town clerk of Lancast r 
borough, r« moved prior to 1760 to Middleton 
township. Cumberland county, where his de¬ 
scendants became quite noteu people. In the 
assessment list of that township for 1762 we 
find the names of taxables of George Sandei'- 
son, sen , his wife Jean, and sons Robert and 
Geoi'ge, j r. The first George Sanderson was an 
active, energetie man, and quite prominent in 
affairs p ior to the Revolution. 


Swadamy, alias Shukelemy, 1 

Onichnaxqua, 

ONOCHKALLYDAW^aftasWATSATUHA i 

Tohashwanrarorows, I 

Arughhooththaw, ( 

Tiorhaasery, J 


Sachems 
of the 
Oneydoes 


Sidowax, ) Sachems 

attiusgu, > of the 

Tuwaiadachquha, j Tuscarai'oes. 


Tanasanegos, 

Tanachiuntus, 


Chiefs of the 
Senikers or 
Senecaes. 


The deed was delivered by Mr. Commis¬ 
sioner Jenings on his return to Annapolis, 
to his clerk, Mr. Richard Burdus, who re¬ 
corded it among the land records in the 
provincial court office of Maryland, in 
libro E. I. fo. 8, 9, 10, 11. 

This morning the Governor met the 
Indians on business, and Cannasateego 
answered his Honcur’s speech made 
to the Indians on Thursday last, relating 
to the murder of John Armstrong 1 and his 


i For a full account of the murder of John 
A'mstx'ong, a trader among the Indians, » ho 
resided on the east side of the Susquehanna, 
above Petei'’s Mountain, see Dr. Kgle’s History 
of Dauphin county, pp. 34-36. 











' 













23 


Treaty at Lancaster , 17J,J h 


two men, Indian traders. The chief said 
* That the Indians were, from the bottom 
of their hearts, very sorry such a mis¬ 
fortune had happened ; but hoped their 
brother Onas would dry up his tears and 
wipe his eyes. That they would send the 
two Delawares down to Philadelphia, who 
were suspected to be and charged as ac¬ 
cessories to the murder, though they really 
believed them guiltless, for they assured 
the Governor that on the trial of the In¬ 
dians in Philadelphia gaol, committed for 
perpetrating Armstrong’s and his men’s 
murder, it would appear that he was the 
sole person who did the horrid deed. 
However, to comply with the Governor’s 
request, they would send the Delawares 
(but not as prisoners) to be examined and 
tried ; and if they were found guilty, to 
snffer as the English law prescribes; but if 
innocent, then to return them safe to the 
Six Nations.” 

His Honor, in return, said “that great 
care should be taken to do the Delawares 
all the justice in the world, and if, upon a 
fair trial they should be acquitted, he 
would send them in safety to their own 
homes.” 

The Indians gave the Governor four 
strings of wampum, and he, in return, pre¬ 
sented them with three strings. But for a 
more particular account of Armstrong and 
his men’s murder, see the treaty at large. 

In the afternoon the honourable Com¬ 
missioners of Virginia had a conference 
with the Indians in the Court House cham¬ 
ber, when a deed, in the nature of ours, 
releasing their claim to a large quantity of 
land, lying in that colony, was produced 
by Mr. Weiser to the sachems for execu¬ 
tion, which was signed and delivered by 
them in the presence of divers gentlemen 
of the three colonies, who were witnesses 
to the same. Wine and sangree was pre¬ 
sented to the chiefs, who drank to the con¬ 
tinuation of the friendship betwixt them 
and his Majesty’s subjects in Virginia. 

After the deed was executed, Cannassa- 
teego commanded the young Indian 
men then present to entertain the 
Governor and Commissioners in the 
evening with a particular dance, ac¬ 
cording to the custom of their nations, 
which was complied with about 8 o’clock. 
Before they performed the dance, I went 
to their camp, where I saw the young war¬ 
riors paint themselves in a frightful man¬ 
ner, and on their heads place a great quan¬ 
tity of feathers. They took arrows and 
tomahawks in their hands, and then unani¬ 
mously ran out of their camp, hallooing | 
and shrieking (which was terrible to us, 


being strangers,) up the street to Mr. 
Cookson’s 1 , where the Governor was ; and 
there they made a ring, a person being 
placed in it, and danced round him to a 
horrid noise, made by the inclosed per¬ 
son and the others. In this manner 
they continued sometime, flourishing their 
weapons and striving to destroy him in the 
ring. When they had acted thus about 
seven or eight minutes, then their captain 
ran before them, very swift, to another 
place, about twenty or thirty yards dis¬ 
tance from Mr. Cookson’s, and there acted 
over again. This was a representation of 
the Indians besieging a fort of their 
enemies (who have no cannon), the person 
in the midst of the circle representing the 
fort besieged, and the Indians encircling 
him, the besiegers; and as it happens 
sometimes that they are beaten from a fort 
when besieging it, so their running away, 
as described above, was the manner of 
their retreat. As soon as the Indians re¬ 
covered their fatigue, they renewed the at¬ 
tack of the supposed fort. When they had 
finished the siege, and the Governor and 
commissioners had treated them with san¬ 
gree, they immediately retired to their 
wigwams. 

Tuesday, 3d July, 1744, 

At 11 o’clock this morning the Governor 
and all the honorable Commissioners had a 
meeting with the Six Nations in the Court 
House, when his Honour made a speech to 
them as did the Commissioners of Virginia 
and Maryland, and each party presented 
strings and belts of wampum, on receipt of 
which the Indians gave the usual cry of 
approbation, and in a stronger and more 
cheerful tone than heretofore. They were 
served with plenty of rum at the conclu¬ 
sion of the speeches and drank it with a 
good gout. 

i Thomas Cookson was a native of County Sun¬ 
derland, England, born abou 1710 Ilecamoto 
America at his majority, and probably located 
in Lancaster shortly after the removal ot ihe 
county seat from Postlethwait’s, for we find 
that he was commissioned a justice ot the 
peace November 22, 1738 He was chief bur¬ 
gess of the town in 1742 and 1743, and 
again in 1747, ’48 and ’49. In 1744 he was 
Prothonotary and Register ot the county, 
and for a long period one of the Proprietary 
surveyors. He died at Lancaster in 1753, leav¬ 
ing a wi'e and two children—Hannah ana Mar¬ 
garet, the latter d ing in her minority. Mr. 
c oolison was one of the first wardens of St. 
James’ Episcopal church in Lancaster, was a 
gentleman of means, owning a large landet 
estate on bo h sides ot the Susquehanna. His 
residence was on rangestreet, Lancaster, a id 
the hospitality thereat was proverbial. He 
and liov Thomas had been inti oate friends 
and, as a ma' ter of course, the latter was hand¬ 
somely entertained during the treaty. 




24 


Mar she's Journal. 


Wednesday, 4th July, 1744. 

The Indian chiefs assembled in the Court 
House, and the Governor and Commission¬ 
ers met them there, when the speeches 
made yesterday, by the latter gentlemen, 
were answered by the Indian orators. 
After this, the chiefs made a present of a 
large bundle of deer skins to his Honour, to 
the Commissioners of Virginia, and to those 
of Maryland, which were kindly accepted. 
The Governor, Commissioners of Virginia, 
and the white by-standers, gave three loud 
huzzas, and thereby put an end to the 
treaty in regard to them. 

Id tne Afternoon—Court House. 

The Shawanese 1 nation of Indians, who 
compose the sixth body amongst the In¬ 
dians, in the year 1742, came down to 
Maryland, on the eastern shore of that 
province, to a nation of oar friendly Indians, 
and tributary to the Six Nations, called 
Nanticokes, 2 from inhabiting near a river 


i Mr. Marshe was '< istaken as to tbe Shawa¬ 
nese Indians belonging to the Iroquois league, 
and being the Sixth ' atii n of the confederacy. 
The Shawanese had a Southern origin. They 
came to Pennsylvania in 1698, by permission of 
the Promietary Government, and possibly by 
persuasion of the Iroquois. They were sub¬ 
ject to the latter, and not their equals. They 
were permitted to be present at treaties where 
representatives ot the Six Nations attended, 
but they had no part therein. Mr. Marshe’s 
account Illustrates our own views ot this per¬ 
fidious tribe of Indians. They were revenge¬ 
ful by nature: custom had made vengeance 
with them a matter of duty and honor. They 
had little idea of truth—they were natural born 
liars, and as a result were the u eanest of rob¬ 
bers. There were no refined feelings in th*-ir 
nature, and murder and arson were virtues in 
their eyes They came to Pennsylvania osten¬ 
sibly as friends and settlers on land purchased 
by the Proprietary. For the devastation and 
horror which reigned on the frontiers of Penn¬ 
sylvania from 1740 onward thev were directly 
responsible. Instigated by their own infernal 
will, the poor back settler was shot down 
and scalped, his witeand children tomahawked 
or perished in miserable captivity. The Sha¬ 
wanese war iors werenever happier than when | 
their belts were decorated with the scalps ot I 
old age and infancy, and could dance around a 
prisoner tied to the stake, with burning fag¬ 
gots around him piled—writhing in the agony 
ot torture. Pre-eminently devilish were the 
Sh iwanese, 

2 The Nanticokes, (Tide-waterpcople.jasmall 
number of the Algonquin family, had their 
seats, when the Europeans first met them, on 
the eastern shore of Marvlrnd. Thence the 
migrated northward about 1748, following the 
course of the Susquehanna, and planting in 
part at Wyoming and in part higher up the 
rivet, at Chenango and Chemung, it is prob¬ 
able a portion followed the fortunes of the 
Shawanese, especially after their treacherous 
conduct of i74‘2. The remainder, shortly after 
the treaty with the Six Nations at Lancaster, 
in 744, asked permission to depart the Pro¬ 
vince ot Man land, and leave was gra ted by 
the Council on the 13thof September following. 
The Couoy Indiaus, so-called, were a portion 
this Maryland tt ibe. I 


of that name; and by their artifice per¬ 
suaded them to rise upon the English, to 
recover all the lands that bad been for¬ 
merly theirs, but now possessed by the 
English under Lord Baltimore; at the 
same time promising the Nanticokes 
all the assistance in the power of 
them, the Shawanese, though they were 
in perfect friendship with us, by the 
treaty made during the administra¬ 
tion of the Hon. Charles Calvert, esq., 
who giving ear but too unwarily to the 
Shawanese, did intend to have put in prac¬ 
tice the wicked scheme of destroying the 
white inhabitants of that shore, but their 
machinations were opportunely discovered 
by one of the Nanticoke chiefs a day or 
two before they were to have perpetrated 
the intended murders of the English. 
Upon this the militia of the counties were 
raised, who, after a great and close search, 
took 68 Nanticoke chiefs prisoners, with 
old. Panquash, their emperor, and they 
were brought to Annapolis in sloops, and 
there examined and confined, but after¬ 
wards set at liberty. As these ac¬ 
tions of the Shawanese (who, in¬ 
deed, are the most dishonest and 
treacherous of all the other Six Na¬ 
tions. and for that reason hated by them) 
were contrary to the treaties then subsist¬ 
ing betwixt us and them as part of the Six 
Nations, the Commissioners took an oppor¬ 
tunity, in a private conference with them 
this afternoon, “ to ask them the reason of 
tbe Shawanese’s procedure, and whether 
they had any countenance from other Na¬ 
tions? and also desired the chiefs then 
preseut to search this business fully, and 
reprimand the criminal Shawanese, who 
were more blameable than the deluded 
Nanticokes.” 

The Six Nations, by their orator, said, 
“that they were heartily sorry for 
what the Shawauese had done; but on 
their return to Onondago, they would make 
a strict inquiry of the whole affair, and if 
they found them so culpable as we alleged 
they were, then they would severely repri¬ 
mand them for their treacherous behaviour 
contrary to the faith of treaties.” 

When this answer was finished our Com¬ 
missioners shook the several chiefs by the 
hand, and took their leaves of them, pre¬ 
senting Gachradodon with a fine laced hat. 

This Gachradodon is a very celebrated 
warrior, and one of the Cahuga chiefs, 
about forty years of age, tall, straight- 
limbed, and a graceful person, but not so 
fat as Cannasateego. His action, when 
he spoke, was certainly the most grace¬ 
ful, as well as bold, that any person 

















25 


Treaty at Lancaster , 17J4- 


ever saw ; without the buffoonery of the 
French, or over-solemn deportment of the 
haughty Spaniards. When he made the 
complimentary speech on the occasion of 
giving Lord Baltimore the name of 
Tocary-ho-gon, he was complimented by 
the Governor, who said “ that he would 
have made a good figure in the forum of 
old Rome.” And Mr. Commissioner 
Jenings declared, ‘‘that he had never seen 
so just an action in any of the most cele¬ 
brated orators he had heard speak.” 

Thursday, 6th July, 1744. 

This morning, Mr, Peters, Secretary 
to the Governor, Mr. Black, Secretary 
to the honourable Commissioners of 
Virginia, and myself, examined the whole 
treaty, and finished all matters any way 
relating to it. At 12 Colonels Colvill and 
King, with the Virginia Commissioners, 
4 settled our accounts with Mr. Worrall. 
Here we dined, and immediately after¬ 
wards mounted our horses, and went from 
this filthy town to our kind, facetious land¬ 
lord’s, Mr. Hughes, at Nottingham town¬ 
ship, by the Gap-Road, so called from a 
space or gap being open in the ridge of 
Blue Mountains, which extend a great way 
to the south-westward of Virginia, and 
northeastward of Pennsylvania. 

I was so fatigued with my journey, 
which was forty-four miles, and the 
weather was so very sultry withal, having 
no good accommodations on the road, that 
several of us were seized with a fever. 
Lay at Mr. Hughes’s, where good care 
was taken of me by my kind host. 


Friday, 6th July, 1744. 

Breakfasted at Mr. Hughes’s, and about 
eight in the morning set out for Mr. Ben¬ 
jamin Chew’s in Cecil county, after hav¬ 
ing taking leave of the honourable com¬ 
missioners of Virginia, and the several 
young gentlemen of that colony, with the 
latter of whom I had contracted a friend¬ 
ship and received many civilities from 
them. My horse tired in my journey to 
Mr. Chew’s, though it was but ten miles. 
Here I rested this day and night, my fever 
continuing, and my horse still remaining 
lame. 

Saturday, ^th of July, 1744. 

Went from Mr. Chew’s about six this 
morning; crossed the lower ferry of 
Susquehannock ; baited at Mr. Treadway’s 
ordinary, and arrived at Joppa about 11 
o’clock. Ferried from thence over Gun¬ 
powder river to Mr. Day’s, where I dined. 
From hence proceeded to Baltimore town, 
where I rested at the Reverend Mr. Bene¬ 
dict Bourdillon’s; staid and drank tea 
with him and his lady, and then went over 
Potapscoe river to Mrs. Hughes’s ordinary, 
where I lodged this night. 

Sunday, 8th July, 1744. 

After breakfast, about six in the morn¬ 
ing, went from hence to Annapolis with 
William Dallam, and arrived there at ten 
o’clock. 

The end of my journal. 

WITHAM MARSHE, 
Sec’ry to the Hon. Commis. of Maryland. 

















. 































































































APPENDIX. 


The following sketch of Madame Mon¬ 
tour and her family will not he out of place 
in this connection: 

Madame Montour was a noted charac¬ 
ter in our early Provincial history, and it is 
proper that some account be given of her 
and her descendants, all of whom were 
more or less conspicuous. Much, however, 
of what she related to Mr. Marshe was im¬ 
aginative. She was not the daughter of a 
Governor of Canada. Her father, M. Mon¬ 
tour, emigrated to Canada about 1665. By 
an Indian wife he had one son and two 
daughters (Col. Hist, of N. Y., vol. v., p. 
65). In 1694 he was severely wounded by 
the Mohawks, near Fort Lamotte, on Lake 
Champlain. It is supposed that at this 
time Madame Montour, then ten years of 
age, was captured by the Five Nations and 
adopted into their family. Her first ap¬ 
pearance was at a conference held at Albany 
on the 24th of August, 1711, where she 
acted as interpreter. She seems to have 
had a fair education. She married Caron- 
dowana, or the “Big Tree,” who had 
adopted the name of Robert Hunter, Gov¬ 
ernor of New York. Carondowana was 
of the Oneida tribe, “ a great Capt. of ye 5 
Nations,” says Secretary Logan, and fell 
in an encounter with the Catawbas in the 
spring of 1729. On the 16th of 6 mo., 1729, 
presents of “strowds” were “sent to ye 
chiefs of the 5 Nations upon ye death of 
their Capt. Carondawana (alias Robt. 
Hunter) and also above 50 of their men 
killed and taken by ye Southern Indians, 
assisted by ye English traders of Carolina;” 
while on the 29th of 5th mo., 1730, there 
was forwarded “ a whole suit of mourning 
clothes to Carondawana’s widow, Mon¬ 
tour, and a coat to her little son and a 
handkerchief.” At the treaty in Philadel¬ 
phia, in September, 1734, the Proprietaries 
condoled with her publicly at the loss of 
her husband, who had ever been considered 
a warm friend of the English. Prior to 
the death of Carondawana they resided 
among the Miamis at the west end of Lake 
Erie, but about 1727 removed to Pennsyl¬ 
vania, locating at Oskenwacken, on the 


Chenasky (Loyal Sock), now Montours- 
ville, Lycoming county. In some old maps 
it is marked French Town. In 1742 Count 
Zinzendorf visited Madame Montour, and 
it is stated that she was deeply affected 
when she learned the object of his visit. It 
is told in this connection by Zinzendorf 
that the Jesuit missionaries taught the In¬ 
dians the Saviour’s birth-place was in 
France and his crucifiers Englishmen ; but 
this is undoubtedly apocryphal. The fact 
is Madame Montour was full of duplicity, 
as will be learned by casual reference to 
the minutes of the Provincial Council for 
October 15,1734, wherein it is stated “that 
her old age only protects her from being 
punished for such falsehoods.” Speaking 
French, and probably handsome as the 
half-breed Indians were, much was made 
of her in Philadelphia by the old Quaker 
laidies of that metropolis. 

Zeisberger visited her in 1745, when she 
was living on an island in the West Branch, 
with her daughter. In her later years she 
was blind and decrepid. She died prior to 
1753, but the precise date and place are un¬ 
determined. John Harris, in a letter of Janu- 
ary, 1753, says “ Madame Montour is dead.” 

I. Monsieur Montour, as previously 
narrated, had one son and two daughters. 
The son, it is stated by some writers, was 
killed in 1709, at the instigation of Vaudreul 
the Governor of Canada, on account of his 
friendship to the English. But we find 
(Col. Doc. of N. Y., vol. v, p. 65, and vol. 
ix, pp. 601, 602, 830, 902,) that this M. Mon¬ 
tour was “a Frenchman by birth,” there¬ 
fore it could not have been the son who 
was a half-breed, but the father. From a 
document in our possession we learn that 
a brother of Madame Montour was living 
in 1729. The year previous the present of 
a blanket had been made him by the Pro¬ 
prietaries’ Secretary, James Logan, while 
in 1729, he had been sent an “ express ” to 
the Five Nations Chiefs. M. Montour’s 
children were as follows : 

i. Jean [John] ; mentioned heretofore. 
His wife was Anameakhickam, who in 1729 
desired selling some land at “Lechay” to the 




28 


Mar she's Journal. 


Proprietaries, which she “ pretended to 
own,” says Secretary Logan. 

2. ii. Madame Montour , of whom we have 
given a sketch. 

Hi. [a daughter']. She married into 
the Miamis, and all we know of her is the 
mention of a visit to her by Madame Mon¬ 
tour in her old age, accompanied by her 
son Andrew. 

II. Madame Montour’s children were : 

3. i. Margaret, or French Margaret, of 
whom presently. 

ii. A daughter; married in 1744, as stated 
by Mr. Marshe. We know nothing further 
that is definite. If, as some writers believe, 
her name was Catharine, it is a bare pos¬ 
sibility that she has been confounded with 
her niece, French Margaret’s daughter, 
otherwise Queen Catharine. 

4. in. Andrew, or Sattelihu ; of whom 
presently. 

5. iv. Lewis. 

III. Margaret Montour, or French 
Margaret, as she is known, was probably 
the eldest child of Madame Montour. The 
Rev. John Martin Mack, Moravian mis¬ 
sionary, visited her in 1758, and was well 
received by her. She then resided on the 
West branch of the Susquehanna. French 
Margaret’s husband was a Six Nation In¬ 
dian, named Katarioniecha, alias Peter 
Quebeck. He was considered “ a man of 
good character.” They had at least five 
children : 

6. i. Esther; known as Queen Esther. 

7. ii. Catharine; (Col. Ilec. vol. viii, p. 
449) 

Hi. Nicholas; (we are in doubt about 
this). 

iv. A son; was killed about 1753, in an 
expedition against the Creek Indians. 

v. Mary, or Molly; (Col. Rec., vol. viii. 
p. 500). 

IV. Andrew Montour was the eldest 
son of Madame Montour. He is sometimes 
called Henry, and although some writers 
do not consider them identical, we have 
made diligent search for information which 
has warranted us to come to the conclusion 
we have. We find that Captain Henry 
Montour was an interpreter at the grand 
council held at Easton, in 1758; and yet, 
at the same conference, although not on 
the same day, Captain Andrew Montour is 
mentioned as the interpreter. In the Land 
Department of the Commonwealth are the 
following documents : 

[Letter from Richard Peters to John Arm¬ 
strong.] 

“Philadelphia, July 11,1761. 

“ Mr. Armstrong: 

“Sir —The Indians at Easton having re¬ 


commended it to the Proprietaries to let 
their good friend Henry Montour have 
some commodious and good place to contain 
not less than fifteen hundred acres, within 
the land purchased from them over Sasqua- 
hannah, when he was last here, he applied 
for the same, intending to go and locate 
it; and I consented to give him an order to 
you to survey so much for him upon tne 
common terms, after he should return 
from Sir William Johnson’s, to whom he 
was obliged to go. But it seems by what 
Mr. Croghan says that he is detained by Sir 
William, and is now attending him to Fort 
Detroit; and therefore that he may have 
no cause of complaint, I think it proper to 
inform you of this, and desire that you, in 
conjunction with Mr. Croghan, to whom 
he has committed the care of this matter, 
may survey for him at such places as may 
be shewed to you, if not before appropri¬ 
ated or settled, the quantity of fifteen hun¬ 
dred acres, and I shall forthwith acquaint 
the Proprietaries that I have given you this 
order. 

“ I am, sir, 

“ Your most humble servant, 

“RICHARD PETERS.” 

Appended to this letter is the follow¬ 
ing memorandum: 

“ Heniy Montour locates the above grant 
in Sackson’s Cove, situate betwixt Kisha- 
coquillas creek and Juniata river, and about 
five or six miles from where a family of the 
name of Brown is settled on Juniata. 

“ Located this 3d August, 1761.” 

In the foregoing letter, where the word 
Henry sppears, the name originally written 
was Andrew, but subsequently erased and 
the other written. The endorsement on 
this paper is as follows : 

“Paper given to Andrew Montour for 

I, 500 acres of land over Sasquahannah, July 

II, 1761.” 

[WARRANT TO HENRY MONTOUR.] 
“BY THE PROPRIETARIES, 

“ Pennsylvania ss.: 

[seal.] Whereas, Henry Montour, of 
| the county of Cumberland, hath requested 
j that we would grant him to take u p fifteen 
I hundred acres of land, more or less’ situate 
j in Sackson’s Cove, betwixt Kishacoquill as 
creek and Juniata river, and about five or 
six miles from where a family of the name 
of Brown is settled, on Juniata river, (being 
the same land which the Six Nation Indians 
and other Indian nations when they were 
at the late treaty at Easton recommended 
to the Proprietaries to give unto him, the 
said Andrew Montour, as appears by a cer¬ 
tificate of our late Secretary, Richard Pe¬ 
ters, dated the 11th July, 1761, directed to 






























































































































































































Treaty at Lancaster, 174J h 


29 


John Armstrong, Deputy Surveyor of the 
county of Cumberland, (a copy whereof 
is hereunto annexed) in the county 
of Cumberland, for which the said 
Henry 1 Montour agrees to pay over such a 
sum of money as shall be hereafter agreed 
upon by us, together with the yearly quit- 
rent of one penny sterling for every acre 
thereof: These are therefore to authorize 
and require you to survey, or cause to be 
surveyed, unto the said Henry Montour, at 
the place aforesaid, according to the meth¬ 
ods of townships appointed the said quan¬ 
tity of fifteen hundred acres, if not already 
surveyed or appropriated, and make return 
thereof unto the Secretaries’ office, in order 
for further confirmation, for which this 
shall be your sufficient warrant. Given 
under my hand, and the seal of the Land 
Office, by virtue of certain powers from the 
said Proprietaries at Philadelphia, this 
twenty-second day of December, one thou¬ 
sand seven hundred and sixty-one. 

“JAMES HAMLLTON. 
“To John Lukens, Esquire, Surveyor Gene¬ 
ral.” 

With the foregoing, in the handwriting 
of William Maclay, Deputy Surveyor, is 
“ the draught of a tract of land situate on 
the head of Penn’s creek, above the Great 
Spring, between it and a mountain lying 
N. W. from said spring, in the county of 
Cumberland,” called “Succoth,” contain¬ 
ing 820 acres, and returned 19th May, 1767. 
Another tract 2 of land containing l,710f 
acres, called “Sharron,” was returned the 
same day. Both tracts were surveyed to 
Henry Montour, and contained instead of 
1,500 acres over 2,500 acres. 

We have given the foregoing in full, as 
possible proof that Andrew and Henry 
were one and the same. It has been stated 
that Andrew Montour in 1755 resided on 
the Proprietary grant to him ten miles 
northwest of Carlisle, between the Conedo- 
quinet and the Juniata, on a little stream 
yet named for him “Montour’s run but 
this land was never surveyed to him, and 
was soon over-run by settlers. Of the land 
subsequently surveyed, into whose hands 
it fell we have no information. In 1775, 
Captain John Montour asked compensation 
for the lands of his father, Captain Andrew 
Montour, but it is doubtful if he ever re¬ 
ceived any remuneration therefor. 

The Indian name of Andrew Montour 
was Sattelihu. Of all the Montours he was 
the most prominent. He acted as interpre- 
ter'at some of the more important treaties 

1 The writer began “ An ” as 11 to write An¬ 
drew. 

2 Where Allenville, Mifflin county, now is. 


with the Six Nations, not only in Pennsyl¬ 
vania, but in New York. In 1753 the 
French set a price of £100 upon his head. 
He accompanied Conrad Weiser on his 
mission to the country of the Six Nations, 
and was always considered loyal to the 
British interest. During the French and 
Indian war he was captain of a company of 
Indians on the English side, and hence his 
military title was properly acquired. He 
was, however, hard to please, and like his 
mother, untruthful and unreliable. He 
died prior to 1775. Captain Andrew Mon¬ 
tour was twice married : first to a grand¬ 
daughter of Allummapees, king of the 
Delawares, and they had 

i. John; born in 1744, as it is stated that 
in 1756 he was twelve years of age. He 
was educated at the Philadelphia Academy, 
as also the other children of Andrew Mon¬ 
tour, at the expense of the Province of 
Pennsylvania, and under the care of Gov. 
Robert Hunter Morris. He commanded a 
company of Delaware Indians in 1782, serv¬ 
ing under Col. Brodhead, in the Western 
Department, and was distinguished for his 
valor, as also his steadfast friendship to 
the cause of the colonies. He was living 
in 1789, but there is nothing further. 

Andrew Montour, by a second wife, 
(Sarah,) had three childxen. We have the 
names of 

it. Nicholaus; baptized at Albany, Octo¬ 
ber 31, 1756. At this period it seems that 
Andrew Montour was interpreter to His 
Majesty for the Six Nations and in the ser¬ 
vice of Sir William Johnson. (Gen. John 
S. Clark ) 

in Mary Magdalene, alias Peggy. Al¬ 
though baptized in her early youth by a 
Roman Catholic priest in Philadelphia, she 
subsequently joined the Moravian Indian 
congregation at Salem, on the Pequotting. 
Her last husband (she had been previously 
married,) was a white trader named Hands, 
and on marrying him she was called Sally 
Hands. After Hands’ death she resided 
among the whites at the mouth of the 
Thames, in Canada, maintained by her 
son, a merchant in Montreal. She died 
about 1818. Sally Hands’ Indian name 
was Koyodaghscroony; her baptismal 
name Mary Magdalene, and Peggy her Mo¬ 
ravian name. She has been confounded 
with Peggy who interpreted at the Lancas¬ 
ter treaty in February, 1760, and who re¬ 
sided in the vicinity of Fort Stanwix in 
1764. She was evidently a different person. 

V. Lewis Montour, a younger brother 
of Andrew Montour, was occasionally em¬ 
ployed by the Provincial authorities in the 
capacity of messenger. In 1754 he resided 








30 


Mar she's Journal. 


near Aughwick Old Town, where Conrad 
Weiser complained of his disturbing the 
Indians by bringing liquor to them. “They 
cannot help buying and drinking it,” re¬ 
peats the interpreter, “when they see it, 
and Lewis sells it very dear to them, and 
pretends that his wife, which is a very ugly 
squaw, does it.” He was killed during the 
French and Indian war, but how or where, 
we have no knowledge. 

VI. Esther, the daughter of French 
Margaret, and who has been confounded 
with her sister, Queen Catharine, by Los- 
sing and other writers, was undoubtedly 
the most infamous of all the Montours. 
She was the wife of Echogohund, king of 
the Monsey Delawares, and at his death 
became the queen. She resided at Sheshe- 
quin, on the site of the present Ulster, 
Bradford county, Pennsylvania. In the 
Wyoming expedition of July, 1778, she 
commanded a company of warriors, and at 
the massacre on the 3d of the month she 
was the most infuriated demon in that car¬ 
nival of blood. On the preceding day one 
of the Indians slain at Exeter was her son, 
and this may have increased her hellish 
ferocity. In the autumn of the same year, 
Col. Thomas Hartley destroyed the village 
at Sheshequin, and burned her residence, 
which writers have fancifully denominated 
“ a palace.” She died about the com¬ 
mencement of the present century, very 
aged and decrepid, it is stated, at her resi¬ 
dence at the head of Cayuga Lake. 

VII. Catharine Montour was nt ne the 
less conspicuous than the other female 
Montours. She married into the Turkey 
tribe of the Delawares. Her husband’s 
English name was Thomas Huston, or 
Hudson, (see Penna. Archiv., 1st ser., vol. 
iii, p. 558,) whose brother John, alias 
Eyendeegen, is mentioned in the Pennsyl¬ 
vania Colonial Records (vol. viii, p. 151). 
In 1758 they had five or six children, so 
stated by Conrad Weiser. Queen Catha¬ 
rine resided in later years at the head of 
Seneca Lake, four miles from the village of 
Culvers, called Sheaquaga, or as generally 
known, French Catharine’s Town. This 
village was destroyed by Gen. Sullivan, in 
1779. Queen Catharine fled to Niagara, 


where she died a year or two after. It has 
been stated that she was eighty years of 
age in 1779. If that was the case, Queen 
Catharine could not have been the grand¬ 
daughter of Madame Montour. In the 
Provincial records she is named Cate and 
Catrina. The reported children of Catha¬ 
rine Montour, of which we have know¬ 
ledge, were: 

i. Roland. 

ii. John; sometimes called “Stuttering 
John.” 

in. Belle. 

It is stated by Canadian, and also by 
United States writers, on the authority of 
the correspondence of Edward Pollard, 
now in the possession of the Historical 
Society of St. Catharine’s, C. W., that Ed¬ 
ward Pollard was the father of the fore¬ 
going children. If that is correct, they 
were not those of Catharine, the daughter 
of French Margaret. Her husband was, 
as previously given, and on the authority 
of our Pennsylvania Provincial Records, 
Thomas Hudson, alias Telenemut, a noted 
chief of the Senecas. The question now 
resolves itself into, “ Who was the mother 
of Roland, John and Belle Montour,” here 
noted ? 

Roland Montour and his brother John 
were active participants in the border war 
during the struggle for independence, and 
always on the side of the British, holding 
commissions therefrom. These two were 
the leaders of the band who captured the 
Gilbert family in 1780 ; Roland as captain, 
John as second in command. Roland was 
wounded in a skirmish with the frontier 
settlers of Pennsylvania and New York, in 
1781, and died therefrom. He was buried 
at or near Painted Post. His wife was the 
daughter of Siangorochti, king of the Sene¬ 
cas, but her mother, being a Cayuga, she 
was ranked as of that nation. (See Gilbert 
Narrative.) 

“John Montour, the brother of Roland,” 
says Gen. Clark, of Auburn, New York, 
“ died at Big Tree, now Geneseo, in,1830. 
His grave is about a mile from the great 
oak formerly known as the Big Tree. Both 
Montours were educated at Elizabeth, New 
Jersey. 










































































































